Pokémon Sleep is now officially available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Australia, Canada, Latin America and New Zealand, with other regions expected to be included imminently. The sleep-tracking app, first announced in 2019 before disappearing completely until just a few weeks ago, has also been confirmed to feature Shiny Pokémon and even a premium season pass now that people can get their hands on it.

How it works

Pokémon Sleep can analyse your sleep sessions by placing the phone on your mattress face-down overnight and using the sensors in your phone, such as the accelerometer and the microphone, to detect your movement or noises throughout the night. For those that might find it quite awkward to place their phone on their bed overnight while charging (and ensuring that there is enough space on the bed that it is not smothered by your pillows, which will constitute a fire hazard), the Pokémon Go Plus+ accessory can be used instead.

When you wake up – and you can set the app to wake you up ahead of your alarm by a maximum amount (eg: no more than 15 minutes) if it detects that you are sleeping lightly enough that you’ll wake up easier and less groggy at that time – the real game begins by both checking out how ‘successful’ your sleep session was and by investigating the sleeping Pokémon that have gathered around your Snorlax thanks to the power of your own sleep.

Like New Pokémon Snap, you can encounter over a hundred different Pokémon this way, and each Pokémon has up to 4 different sleep styles to discover and log – all tied directly to your sleep results.

After cataloguing the sleeping Pokémon, you can feed them special Pokémon biscuits – with a free bonus one each day and others available to purchase and collect – to increase your friendship level with that Pokémon. The Pokémon will permanently join you as a research partner at maximum friendship. Some of these Pokémon might even be Shiny.

Befriended Pokémon can be levelled up and evolved like most other Pokémon games, and partnering with them for sleep sessions will produce different berries, ingredients and other bonuses afterwards, depending on the Pokémon’s unique stats, skills and nature.

By completing ‘good’ sleep sessions and feeding Snorlax berries and other food afterwards, you can increase its Drowsy Power. The higher the Snorlax’s drowsy power, the rarer the Pokémon and sleep types you’ll encounter. However, you only have one week to build up your Snorlax, as each week, you’ll have to select a different island and start over with another.

Throughout the rest of the day, your partner Pokémon will steadily gather berries and ingredients you can collect by tapping on them when ready. Doing this regularly will help build up Snorlax’s strength before your next sleep session and maximise your outcomes.

Sleep Pass

Alongside a premium currency of Diamonds – which you can collect in-game but are the main microtransaction fuel with bundles available from 99p for 60 to £80.99 for 7,000 – you can also collect Sleep Points to use in exchange for various gameplay items.

You can gain one sleep point for each point earned in your sleep score, up to 100 per sleep session, but you can significantly boost your sleep points by buying a Premium Sleep Pass.

The Premium Pass has several benefits and is available in either a monthly plan for £7.99 a month or a 6-monthly plan for £39.99. A two-week free trial is also available for new subscribers.

Benefits

• View unlimited sleep data records and statistics (limited to the last 30 days without)
• Daily Bonus Biscuit upgraded to a Premium Bonus Biscuit, which increases a Pokémon’s friendship bonus by 4 instead of 1.
• Receive a bonus 100 sleep points each day that you track sleep
• Gain Access to the Premium Exchange in the shop for exchanging Sleep Points for a different and potentially rarer rotating set of items
• Monthly gifts of a Good Camp Ticket and 1,000 Sleep Points
• Additional rewards every 3 months of a continued subscription of certain rare items
• Unlocks a diary you can use to keep short 200 character notes about your sleep sessions