What’s your morning phone routine? After your alarm sounds but before you get out of bed, do you scroll through your mobile? Half asleep, I clear notifications, read BBC News, do the Wordle. This week, that changed – I checked in with Snorlax first instead.
Pokémon Sleep is the franchise’s big play to dominate the one part of my life previously free from Pokémon gaming – the six to eight hours a night I’m typically asleep. The app tracks sleep quality and offers rewards each morning – and yes, it also gives you another Pokémon thing to check in on during the day.
If you’ve tried a sleep-tracking app on your phone before, Pokémon Sleep likely works in a similar method. You lay your device next to you in bed – with the app open and the phone unlocked – and it detects your night-time noise and movement. (Pokémon Sleep asks you not to put your phone directly under your pillow in order to avoid it overheating.)
After a night with the app open, you then check in to see how your sleep varied during the night and to collect your rewards, with a better, longer night’s sleep providing more (and bonuses for going to bed at your chosen bedtime). The overall aim of the app is for you to complete its Pokédex by attracting different Pokémon species as you sleep, with these creatures then found clustered around the app’s main character, Snorlax, as you wake up each AM.