Som Sleep has partnered with up-and-coming Los Angeles-based queer artist Mich Miller on a limited-edition can in celebration of Pride Month. The campaign, called Pride Dreams, will benefit the Los Angeles LGBT Center in support of its LGBTQ+ programs including healthcare and social services. 

“When we launched Som Sleep, we set out on a mission to help people sleep better so that they could do better. And now, three years later, we are in a position to help contribute to causes and movements that we feel are important and pressing,” said Justin Shegerian, Som Sleep co-founder, in a statement.

Research has shown that LGBTQ+ people have poorer sleep health, primarily due to higher levels of stress and a lack of family support, the company says. Identifying as LGBTQ+ often leads to lower quality relationships with one’s parents, it adds. Compared with cisgender, these individuals are more likely to be rejected by their families, leading to low quality sleep. Minority stress is another factor affecting the LGBTQ+ community as frequent experiences with prejudice and discrimination may contribute to an excessive toll physical and mental health, it notes.

Scientists have increasingly found that sleep is vital for maintaining good physical and psychological health. This is at the core of Som Sleep's mission. 

“We started Som Sleep to address our own issues with sleep, which were many. I can’t begin to understand what people in the LGBTQ+ community face in addition to the regular everyday elements of life, which make sleep more challenging. Given our sole focus as a company is to help people and communities with sleep, we couldn't think of better partners than Mich Miller and the Los Angeles LGBT Center to donate 100% of the proceeds from Pride Dreams,” said Abdul Khan, Som Sleep co-founder, in a statement. “This partnership aims to raise awareness around the benefits of getting a good night’s rest and how it can improve overall health, especially for a community that is largely impacted.”

Since 1969, the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond, building a world where LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. 

“For me, the LGBT Center has been the biggest supporter of many friends in my life. Friends from all areas, ages and walks of life who are queer and benefit from their different programs from social and health services, to community gatherings and programming. All this coming together is really exciting,” Miller said.

Each month, the Center welcomes more than 50,000 visits (more than half a million each year) from youth and adults who represent the full diversity of the LGBT community; people of all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations and ages — from the newborn child of an LGBT parent to seniors in their golden years. All services, which are available to everyone, are free or low-cost. 

“My dream for the pride community is the coming together of youth and elders in the community, and sharing within that. The older generations of queer people have such important knowledge to share, and the younger generations are just breaking through the constructs of the past. My dreams for pride are for all the generations coming together to share in the history, the future and dreaming up queer liberation in its purest sense,” Miller stated.

Pride Dreams can be found exclusively on the brand's website, getsom.com, at $29.99 for a 12-pack, while supplies last.