Pokemon Sleep isn't a Pokemon game in the traditional sense. However, that hasn't stopped it from being one of the hardest in the series for some. As players are sharing online, Pokemon Sleep is expecting its users to get 8.5 hours of rest a night - something that's an impossibility for so many of us. I mean, who has the time?
Worse yet, Pokemon Sleep even has the audacity to expect its players to regularly stick to their set bedtime. Doing so will net you more rewards, but at what cost? Well, it will actually improve your sleeping pattern and probably your health. But it might get in the way of some 3am Twitter doomscrolling. That, and it also takes a lot of willpower for many of us.
"This may be the hardest Pokemon game," says Twitter user @SWIMMIN, sharing a screenshot of Pokemon Sleep having the nerve to remind us that we ought to get 8.5 hours of sleep a night. Honestly, I thought it was eight hours. I suppose they snuck another half an hour in there just to make us feel worse. Or so we'd spend more time napping to build up our collection of Pokemon.
Better yet, @SWIMMIN also shares that one of the challenges tasks players with sticking to their bedtime. Although to be fair, I imagine you can just cheat the system by changing your bedtime to whatever ungodly hour you do finally hit the hay. 3am? 4am? Look, no one's judging here.
All of these struggles are prompting players to come up with even more wild ideas for the game, better incentivising fans to actually get a good night's sleep. One proposal, courtesy of Twitter user @jsketch12, is a Nuzlocke-inspired game mode. Yes, it involves your Pokemon dying if you fail to complete your tasks. No pressure. Others suggest that maybe if you're caught tampering with your bedtime to try and get a good score, your progress is erased. As cheaters deserve, of course.
So while The Pokemon Company seems to be succeeding in gamify ing sleep, it looks like some players want it to go even further. For a laugh, if nothing else. That being said, maybe we should master getting those 8.5 hours of sleep before anything else. I don't think we're ready for that Nuzlocke run just yet.