Yes, Pokémon Sleep is Real — Here’s What to Know About It

Despite being announced in 2019, there has been little to no information about Pokémon Sleep, the sleep tracker in development from the popular game and toy franchise. But after much anticipation, the long-awaited (and definitely not canceled) app is almost here — and we’ve tried it.

The Pokémon Company invited Distractify to try Pokémon Sleep firsthand, letting us spend the night snoozing with Snorlax, and here’s what you need to know about the upcoming app.

Though so many of the different games in the Pokémon franchise focus on collecting the various creatures across generations, in Pokémon Sleep, your primary goal is to study Pokémons’ various sleep patterns.

Following a sleep session, your quality of sleep will be categorized as either Dozing, Snoozing, or Slumbering. Depending on your sleep quality, certain Pokémon will appear in varying sleep positions. At the start of the day, you can take photos of all of the Pokémon you found sleeping around your Snorlax, though only one of them can become your buddy by feeding them enough biscuits.

To record a sleep session, you’ll have to go into the Pokémon Sleep app to begin your session, and then leave the app open throughout the night to record your slumber. Sleep sessions cannot be shorter than 90 minutes, and it’ll grade your sleep based on your movement and breathing throughout the night. The more you use the app, the better it acclimates to your regular sleep patterns.

Because you must leave the app for it to work, you won’t be able to use your phone during the sleep session — which means you can’t do any midnight TikTok scrolling when you can’t sleep (though this may not be a bad thing). You’ll want to place the phone on the mattress or pillow for this to work properly, though make sure it’s not covered up so it doesn’t overheat.

Though they’re not technically “caught,” your buddy Pokémon will help you with your research, collecting berries throughout the day for you to use. These will help you make more food for Snorlax — and the more food Snorlax, the higher your Drowsy Power will be at the end of every sleep session.

Though there are only about 100 different Pokémon in Pokémon Sleep at launch, each Pokémon has more than one style of sleep — meaning even if you find the same Pokémon gathering on your island multiple mornings in a row, you can still advance your research if they’re in different sleeping positions. Each Pokémon will usually have three or four different sleeping positions, though it varies individually.

Similar to how Pokémon GO is a free-to-play app, Pokémon Sleep will also be free, with in-app purchases for those who want to invest more money in the game. Players can purchase diamonds from the in-app store, which function similar to the PokéCoins in Pokémon GO. With these diamonds, you can buy incense to draw certain Pokémon to you while you sleep, upgrades for your campsite, and biscuits to feed the Pokémon that visit.

Yes! There are Shiny Pokémon in the game, though the traditional Shiny hunting methods won’t work if you want to find them. You’ll just have to continue to record your sleep sessions and power up your Snorlax to increase your Drowsy Power and see what Shiny Pokémon you bring in.

If leaving your phone open on an app all night doesn’t make you feel entirely comfortable, you can instead use the Pokémon Plus+ device. This device (which also doubles as an auto catcher for Pokémon GO), will also record your sleep session in place of leaving your phone open. The accessory will even sing you a Pikachu lullaby if you’d like it to.

Pokémon Sleep will be available for iPhone and Android this summer.