The Pokémon Sleep app is finally releasing later this year

Pokémon Sleep is finally coming this summer, The Pokémon Company has announced.

The mobile app, which was first announced four years ago, is designed to let players track their sleep patterns.

The game takes place on a small island, where a giant Snorlax is sleeping. Players must help Professor Neroli, who researches Pokémon sleep.

Players have to leave their phone by their pillow as they go to bed. Its accelerometers will then be used to measure, record and analyse their sleep.

The player’s sleep will then be categorised as either dozing, snoozing or slumbering and will attract various Pokémon species that match that style of sleeping.

Instead of using their own phones, players can also use a separate accessory called the Pokémon Go Plus +, a small Pokéball-shaped device, which lies on their bed as they sleep.

The device measures players’ movements as they sleep – as the phone would – and captures their data, which can then be transferred to the Pokémon Sleep app.

However, it can also sing lullabies to the player and make alarm sounds, while also including functionality for Pokémon Go. The Pokémon Go Plus+ will be released on July 21.

According to The Pokémon Company’s COO Takato Utsunomiya, “the idea behind Pokemon Sleep is to be a game that makes you look forward to waking up in the morning”.

Pokémon Sleep was originally announced back in May 2019, with The Pokémon Company promising it would “turn sleeping into entertainment” by having a player’s time spent sleeping and the time they wake up have an effect on the gameplay.