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New Pokemon games and fans finding the fastest ways to catch rare shiny variants. Name a more iconic duo, right? Luckily,Pokemon Sleepcarries the time-honored tradition of including shinies. So if you find yourself hooked like a Magikarp to Niantic’s rod, setting your phone down to record your sleep patterns every night without fail, you can count on catching a shiny… someday.
Related:Pokemon Sleep: Sleep Types, Explained
There are ways to improve your odds. As of this writing, Pokemon Sleep is still less than a week on the market, but players have been piecing things together at an impressive clip. Here’s everything we currently know about how to spawn shiny Pokemon… in your sleep!
Updated May 30, 2025:We’ve updated this guide to include even more information on shiny Pokemon!
Raise Snorlax’s Drowsy Power
The higher your Snorlax’sDrowsy Power, the more Pokemon will come hang out with it while you’re slumbering. That’s how wecatch new Pokemonin Pokemon Sleep, after all. Raise the number of pals likely to pal around your sleeping Snorlax, and younaturally improve the percentage of a shiny being among them.
Early estimates place shiny odds at around1 in 450, though this is merely an estimate at this time. That said, while it’s arguably anecdotal evidence, players seem to be finding shinies ata somewhat faster rate than in Pokemon GO, with its roughly 1-in-500 scale. So, it tracks!
Right, so, back to the whole eating thing.You can feed the Snorlax on your island breakfast, lunch, and dinner,though you don’tneedto feed it anything. But letting it chomp down on Berries, andcooking dishesto satiate its big appetite up to those full three meals per day, will elevate its ability tolure Pokemon. That’s the long and short of it - more food means more Pokemon.
In addition to feeding Snorlax, you should alsokeep a supply of biscuitsto improve the chances a visiting Pokemon is befriended.
Get Better Sleep
If this were any other game, you’d think we’re joking. But no,you will increase your shiny odds simply through sleeping better. How does it work? Well, it’s like the mealtime advice all over again. It’s not that the app is programmed to prioritize shiny appearance rates for any particular reason - instead, you’re maximizing the number of Pokemon who might pop up.
Recall that Pokemon Sleep charts yourSleep Scoreand awards Sleep Points accordingly. That Sleep Score improves the odds of a Pokemon being present when you wake up, and how many Pokemon are there, and so forth. You can earnup to a 100 Sleep Scoreper session, which requires a full eight-and-a-half hours.
While over eight hours of reasonably uninterrupted sleep may prove impossible for some, if notmany, players, it’s important to note that you can split it betweentwo sessionseach day. That means a little over four hours, twice, or six hours and then two-and-a-half hours, or whatever it takes to hit that 8.5-hour minimum.
Do Shiny Pokemon Sparkle On Screen?
While we didn’t personally notice the tell-tale sparkle of the shiny when it appeared next to Snorlax, it’s possible we missed it, or it happened off-screen while we panned around to see what was there. There weredefinitely sparkles around the shiny on-screen when it went to the biscuit-feeding phase.
You should be careful as some shinies are hard to spotas they are only slightly darker or lighter versions of their normal shades and sparkles are hard to miss.
Once you have befriended a shiny Pokemon,sparkles will appear in both the ‘A New Helper’ pop-up and whenever you go to view it from the Pokemon Box. While your Sleep Style picture of it for that particular day will reflect its shiny status, the Sleep Style Dex will display it as a normal Pokemon in both the overview screen and pictures.
Can You Get A Shiny Snorlax?
Yes!You sure can. But here’s the thing. The Snorlax who visits you is bound to leave after a week to be replaced with another. So, you won’t have that shiny Snorlax for long. Furthermore,the appearance of a shiny Snorlax does not impact your oddsof attracting shiny Pokemon.
Maybe in the future the developers will reconfigure the system so that shiny Snorlaxdoesimprove those odds. After all, many players are hopping online only to be surprised that it’s just a temporary ‘cosmetic’ alteration. Still, it’s pretty cool that we get to see shiny Snorlaxes at all; we just wish this beauty wasn’t so fleeting.
Different research areas seem to offer Snorlaxes of varying colors. Unless you see a starry animation over your Snorlax, it’s not actually ‘shiny’, but simply a regional variant. Pretty cool nonetheless!
