The Branding of Sleep

The Good and Sacred Sleep, The Bad Dreams, and the Ugly Nightmares

May is Better Sleep + Mental Health Awareness Month.

We live in a sleep-deprived society. In our communities, that exhaustion is layered with generational trauma, systemic barriers, and economic survival. Rest isn’t just wellness—it’s resistance. Branding should reflect that.

— Carol-Anne Ryce-Paul, Brand U Lab

Sleep is not a product. It’s a birthright.
But today, rest is sold in soothing tones and soft packaging, often gatekept by wealth, whiteness, and wellness fantasy. In Better Sleep Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, we must ask:

What does it mean to brand sleep with integrity?

May gives us a double dose of truth. In a society obsessed with wellness aesthetics and the hustle, we must ask:

Who gets to rest? Who profits from exhaustion? And how can branding honour the sacredness of sleep without exploiting our need for it?

This Brand U Lab deep dive unpacks it all—from wellness done right to the dream-sellers gone wrong—and shows how cannabis, hemp, culture, and community can restore…