But sleep did not come, so he got up, vacuumed his Otematata house, then went back to bed about 9am until about 2.30pm.
''Fine, after a bit of a kip,'' he said when the Otago Daily Times asked how he was feeling.
Mr Winward (52), who works for pest control company Excell Biosecurity, and a team of others arrived at the Kurow depot about 7am on Tuesday, then went into the high county at Otekaieke, starting to patrol their pest lines about 9am.
They kept in contact by hand-held radio but when other staff heard nothing from Mr Winward from about 1pm, they set out to check he was all right.
Still not spotted or heard from by 6pm, the company notified Oamaru police, who were in the process of calling in searchers when Mr Winward activated his emergency position-indicating radio beacon (Epirb) about 7pm.
Searchers found Mr Winward about 3am yesterday, 300m from the beacon location. He was treated for hypothermia.
The weather in the area was ''atrocious'' and the country steep, rugged and very wet, with tussock, rock, scree ''and everything else you can think of'', North Otago Search and Rescue spokesman Sergeant Peter Muldrew said.
Mr Winward said he became disoriented by the weather and conditions, ending up in a catchment he was not supposed to be in.
As the day started to wane, cold and wet, he decided to stay put and set up a bivvy. He laid out flour, used in pest bait, in a cross for searchers and to mark a place for a helicopter to land.
He also kept trying to make contact by radio.
To keep warm, he kept moving around, walking, jogging and ''doing something''.
But, once it started to get dark, he had to make a decision about activating his beacon, supplied to all employees by Excell.
''It's one of those things you're not sure about; [you] don't want to put others to trouble when you haven't got a broken leg or something.
''But then I thought, what would I tell someone else if they asked me what to do in that situation - and I would say 'activate it'.
''They are a wonderful investment. Anyone in the outdoors should have one,'' he said.
Sgt Muldrew said Mr Winward did the right thing, staying put, trying to find shelter and activating the beacon.
His workmates also did their very best and later provided excellent support for searchers, using their four-wheel-drive and quad bikes.
Once Mr Winward was found, the skies had cleared and the Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter could be called in from Dunedin to assist and fly Mr Winward and search crews out. Sgt Muldrew estimated it could have taken more than six hours to walk out, because of the condition Mr Winward was in and the rugged country.
Until then, two teams of four search and rescue volunteers, two from Oamaru police and two from Oamaru St John, were involved, supported from the new command centre with four further volunteers.
Mr Winward thanked his co-workers for their efforts and said Search and Rescue was a ''fantastic bunch''.
''You don't think about it, but these guys had done a job all day then came out at night,'' he said.
