Does Pokémon Sleep require you to keep your phone screen on all night?

It’s your first game! PokémOn, Sleep, the sleep-tracking, Pokémon-catching mobile game, you’ll be prompted to leave your phone screen onJust place it face-down on your bed. That said, you’ll need to keep your phone plugged in as well, or else you risk your phone battery dying overnight.

(For context, I’m using an iPhone 13 that has seen better days to play Pokémon Sleep, So my experience could be the same for those who have an Android device or even a more recent iPhone.

You can flip your phone to the other side and it will still work. dim the screen, though it won’t actually lock your phone. The screen will stay on, and while it’s mostly replaced by black space, you’ll still see the time, service provider information, and battery indicators at the top of your display. People (including myself) have apprehensions about leaving the screens of their smartphones on overnight.

The other option, as stated by the game, is to invest in the Pokémon Go Plus Plus, a little gadget that will track your sleep for you, instead of your phone.

Go Plus Plus is priced at $55.

The first morning I woke up after keeping my phone screen on, my phone was hot and it wasn’t even fully charged. The phone was roughly at 80%. Usually, when I plug it in at the end of the night, it’s fully charged by morning.)

As a person who likes Pokémon games (even when those games are silly mobile spin-offs), I had to figure it out: Can I really keep my screen on at night?

Here’s the answer I got: No, unless you are really trying to get accurate sleep data and max out your Pokémon gainz. Turn off the screen to find new friends and encourage good sleeping habits.

If you turn your phone screen off after starting your sleep tracking and look at your lock screen, you’ll see the little orange microphone in the top left corner, indicating that Pokémon Sleep is still tracking your sounds (on iOS, at least), so it’s not like the app needs to be actively open and on your screen to pick up sounds.

Image: Niantic, Select Button/The Pokémon Company via Polygon

So far, I’ve tried turning my phone screen off four times. Two of the times, I was able to record my sleep with my phone. After my alarm went, I simply picked up the phone and unlocked the screen. Then, reopened my app to end my sleep.

On the other two occasions, I woke up prematurely because the app had closed itself in the background. The app ended on Tuesday at nearly 5 am, and Thursday was the same. The app told me that my sleep data was interrupted, but I still had time to review it. Although the app told me that my sleep was disrupted, I still had access to it. It would crash (or close) even after closing other apps. Randomly.

That said, there is a risk that, if the app closes within 90 minutes of when you start the sleep session, you won’t save You can also find out more about the following:Since all sessions must be 90 minutes or longer, this is a problem. This isn’t a problem I ran into, but, again, I’ve only tried it four times (so far).

Maybe if I had a more powerful phone, the tracking would have lasted the whole night, but I didn’t really care as I was still able to review my research and catch Pokémon come morning. I won’t be making any Snorlax high score tables, but that’s OK.

Polygon reached out to The Pokémon Company to ask for details about why the phone screen needs to be on during tracking, but did not receive a response in time for publication.