Summary
After plenty of delays and news cycles of no updates whatsoever,Pokemon Sleepis out and in players' hands, and has even had its first Good Sleep Day event. The mobile game sees players feed a Snorlax berries and cooked meals to increase its strength so that when fans sleep with their phone by their side with the app running, itsDrowsy Power will attract Pokemonto sleep alongside the player, assisting in specific creature-based sleep research.
However, even after the long wait, fans' experience withPokemon Sleephasn’t been perfect. Not only did the application launch with plenty of performance issues, but it also breathed new life into therumor that leaving Apple and Android phones plugged in overnightcould start a fire with ease. Even after these issues were addressed, fans are still finding places wherePokemon Sleepcould do better, with a big lack of support for offline play that hurts players.
RELATED:Why Pokemon Sleep Doesn’t Connect to Pokemon Home
Pokemon Sleep Doesn’t Adapt to Airplane Mode
While many people often sleep in the comfort of their own homes or a hotel, there’s an important part of their daily lives thatPokemon Sleepignores that’s important. SomeSleepplayers may have a few flights to catch which could range from an hour to as long as 18 hours depending on the flight. Despite how many airlines encourage their players to rest on lengthy flights in many significant ways,Pokemon Sleepdoesn’t have features to record data in airplane mode.
In fact, fans can’t playPokemon Sleepoffline whatsoever, which puts it behind many other sleep-tracking apps. A good deal of sleep trackers can either be used completely offline or with enough cache space of the user’s devices to hold onto the data until internet access is restored to the device. Despite needing players to be online to play,Pokemon Sleepstores data when in maintenance, which says that offline functionality most likely should be possible.
Pokemon Sleep’s Lack of Commitment Hurts Its Purpose as Both a Game and a Sleep Tracker
While it may not seem like a big deal that players miss a day inPokemon Sleepdue to a flight, it may actually hurt players in a big way. Recording sleep data with the app itself is critical to finding specificPokemon Sleep Stylesand making progress towards the game’s milestones. While there’s an option to enter sleep data manually, that doesn’t help things if people don’t know exactly how much they slept, but the only benefits players receive is an extra Bonus Biscuit and energy recovery for their team of critters.
Due to the way thatPokemon Sleepdoesn’t try to ensure that fans can record their sleep data anywhere and at any time that they need to, it fails to match up to its competition as a sleep app, making it hard for Niantic and Select Button to keep hold of their playerbase. What’s left is just a game disguised as a sleep tracker, but even then that falls short ascompleting the Pokemon Sleep Style Dexis almost impossible without at least attempting to use it as a sleep companion application.
That said, as a cute game and casual sleep-tracker application,Pokemon Sleepis certainly able to bring a smile to some fans' faces once they wake up and start the day. Even though it’s missing a few key features that could improve the experience, the app is far from unplayable, just inconvenient for those who may not be able to consistently rely on it as part of their morning routine due to flying or not having an internet connection. Hopefully, one day, oncePokemon Sleephas been out for long enough, offline features could be added in the future, which could help even the most travel-loving of players be able to verify they don’t miss any of theGood Sleep Day eventswhen they occur.
Pokemon Sleepis available now on mobile devices.
MORE:Pokemon Sleep Could Be the Perfect Potential Crossover for Pokemon Legends: Arceus
