I am playing a Barbarian and maybe I am missing something, but where on earth can I camp? Even when the on-screen text says that it should be safe to camp at a certain location, I get attacked by swarms of monsters and rats as soon as I try to do so. I can't regenerate any of my health and there are too many monsters for me to explore the dungeon without some kind of health regeneration. Am I missing something? Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this.

You have to defeat all enemies in the vicinity and then you can rest.
If you rest in these niches your rest won't be interrupted as often, I think.

Also, just one note: the classes are not created equal. The overall ranking (from best to worst) goes something as follows:

1. All spell casting classes
2. Classes that can wear plate mail (only possible magical armor to find)
3. Every other class

The game is far easier as a spellcaster (especially if you use the spellmaker) than if you play as any other class.

Thank you both for the input. I am definitely restarting this game as a spellcaster.

I remember it would be difficult sometimes to get away from monsters in Arena dungeons so that I could rest/camp. Arena looks for monsters within a certain diameter of you, regardless of there being walls etc in the way. I found things got easier once I took the spells to destroy and create walls. I would tunnel away from monsters, and if necessary place a new wall so they couldn't walk up on me.

I miss those spells in later TES games.