I’ve been thinking a lot about Pokemon Sleep since my colleague Eric Switzer went hands-on with the upcoming app, which means he went to a sleepover with a bunch of other journalists. Pokemon Sleep is essentially a sleep-tracking app with gamified elements, in the vein of similar Pokemon games like Pokemon Go, which encourages daily walking, and Pokemon Smile, which encourages children to brush their teeth regularly.
The majority of Pokemon Sleep’s gameplay is – you guessed it – sleeping. The story tells you that you’re helping a Professor research Drowsy Power, an ability of Snorlax that causes wild Pokemon to gather around it to take a communal nap. Sleeping helps you attract Pokemon based on what kind of sleep you have and how deeply you sleep, and you can catalogue those Pokemon in your Sleep Style Dex when you wake up.
For example, tossing and turning might mean you have a Rocking Sleep style, like Togepi. Making a lot of noise in your sleep might mean you have Singing Sleep, like Jigglypuff. You can give these Pokemon treats and befriend them, encouraging them to join your team, as well as feed berries to Snorlax to increase its Drowsy Power and increase the number of points you get from sleeping. You get a new Snorlax every week. There are also microtransactions.
That’s the extremely truncated explanation of how Pokemon Sleep works. I highly recommend reading Eric’s preview for more details on how the game functions, as well as information about the battle pass inexplicably included in the app. Well, I say inexplicably, but it’s definitely explainable: companies love making money, even if it means gamifying people’s most basic needs. I’ve written before about my concerns about Pokemon Sleep’s data collection and the harms of gamifying every aspect of people’s lives, and the predictable inclusion of microtransactions has only made me believe this more.
I’ve paid for sleep trackers before, because much like Eric, I’m fascinated by sleep data. But, also like Eric, I stopped using mine after a couple of months – I know why I sleep badly, and how I feel when I do. I know how much sleep I need to get to feel refreshed the next day, and that drinking alcohol makes my sleep worse while exercising makes it better. I know that sleeping in a cool, dark environment is better than a warmer one with lights. A cursory Google (or common sense) could tell you that, and you don’t need an app to tell you that, especially one with a subscription-based battle pass.
I’m increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of data we’re willing to give companies, and that some of us are willing to pay for the privilege of recording our bodily functions, no less. It’s not actually going to do anything for you but show you your sleep patterns, and there’s only so much you can do to optimise that, because you’re a human, not a robot. I take my sleep quality more seriously than the average person my age, but even I wouldn’t download Pokemon Sleep to see what kind of Pokemon I most sleep like. That’s not actually going to benefit me in any way, but it’ll benefit Select Button and Niantic.