If a thing is prescribed or forbidden, then that is how I try to run it. If I don't like it, then I try to change the wording so that I do like it.

Sleep requires a creature use an action to shake or slap the sleeper awake (skirted if you can cause damage somehow without using an action, which a lot of things can). Mage Hand doesn't have anything that lets you manipulate a creature directly- as far as I can tell, you can't mage hand your hair into place, but you can mage hand a comb to comb your hair into place. It's pretty clear you could use an action with it to manipulate an item to wake up a sleeper, so long as you meet the conditions of sleep- for instance, sleep requires you use your action to shake or slap a creature awake. Mage hand can manipulate a glove using an action, and a glove can shake or slap. There's also things that skirt it a bit that I'd definitely count as allowed- for instance, pouring a flask of water on a sleeping creature is arguably slapping them awake, or something. It still costs the same action, after all.

Mage hand can't carry an object weighing more than 10 pounds, but that's not the same as being able to apply 10 pounds of force to a creature. Nothing in mage hand allows it to apply even a single tiny amount of force to a creature. Nothing in sleep allows you to get woken without costing an ally an action or costing you at least one hit point. I think I'm fine with all these restrictions but if you don't like them, propose some wording change that we could play with- I'm always happy to reprint a page to make a spell work better, after all.

As another note, mage hand can never be used to make an attack, but as it can explicitly manipulate objects in ways that could be harmful to an enemy- pouring poison from a vial was brought up- I guess that makes a saving throw the mechanism to avoid that.