I watched a YouTube video recently where a guy monitored his sleep, started getting closer to 8 hours a night, and made his productivity skyrocket. I'm not a hustle culture guy because I have been a hustle culture guy and that culture sucks butt (in a bad way). But I do find aging to be monstrous, and I'll do most anything to lessen its brutal effects. So I decided to try this meme "game". It really is less of a game and more of a way to make you aware of your sleep habits and to encourage better sleep habits. Is it effective at that goal? I don't know yet. Give me a few weeks, and I'll let you know.

Pokémon Sleep has two modes that make up its game loop. The first is a sleep tracking mode. You turn on the sleep tracking mode and put the phone face down on your bed. It then uses the noises and (presumably) vibrations of your bed to decipher if you are sleeping well or not.

It splits up your sleep into three categories. In the picture above, you can see my six and a half hours of sleep split into the three sleep types.

• Yellow is my light sleeping AKA Dozing.
• Light blue is my regular sleeping AKA Snoozing
• Dark blue is my deep sleeping AKA Slumbering

Pokémon Sleep even goes the extra step to show you which parts of the night were your deepest sleep and which parts of the night were trash. It'll even record the noises you make at night in case you want to hear yourself talk in your sleep. In my case, the recording were my wife closing the door to the bedroom, my dog barking when some of our guests who are staying with us got home, and when my alarm went off in the morning. This all brings me to my point of concern- I have no idea how accurate these measurements are. Did I wake up six times last night? I only remember getting up once. Is this accurate, and I'm just too groggy to remember? Is this inaccurate making this portion of the app pointless? Does the fact that I share a bed with my wife make all my numbers compromised? I really don't know. I'd love to see some testing done.

But this is like the records part of Smash Bros. You can be driven by the numbers, but you can also be driven because you want a good night's sleep and like "befriending" (catching) Pokémon.

This is the second mode that makes up the game's loop. Basically, you'll be able to lure Pokemon to your nap camp by feeding a big Snorlax and getting a good night's sleep. After two nights, I already have four Pokemon at my camp- Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Mareep, and Rattata. And they are somewhat alive! They'll sleep. They'll gather food for Snorlax. They'll smile if you tap them. It is minimal, but it is nice. I would like to see some more of the Pokémon the game has to offer. There are currently 104 Pokémon in the game of which I have seen (not even speaking of "befriending" because that has to do with a resource that you gain by sleeping and by dreaded microtransactions) only 8.

Yes, you can evolve these Pokemon. I even saw in the item shop that you can buy evolution items like a King's Rock. I don't know if there are shinies or different regional versions, but Mareep appearing early on gives me hope that we'll have good options beyond the overused original 151.

Will this be a useful tool for me? Only time will tell. But feel free to bug me for the answer. Maybe a month from now I'll be having the best sleep of my life, and I'll have Grumpig to thank. I'll keep you updated.