JuJu’s Story
The Juju Story · as told by her mother, Virginia Galente · I AM Mission x Resona Health
Five years.
Not one full night of sleep.
Then the house went quiet.
Her name is Giulietta — we call her Juju. She was born with a rare genetic disorder called CTNNB1, and for the first five years of her life, sleep deprivation nearly broke me. This page is the story of what finally changed — and the exact bedtime rhythm that changed it.
A 60+ page protocol from a special-needs mom who lived every page of it.
10-step nightly rhythm
Starts with the caregiver, not the child
Built through 5 years of trial and error
Used in our home, every night
3:00 AM · Year Five
The nights that almost broke me
She would either nap during the day and be up until three in the morning, or fall asleep too early, wake in the middle of the night, and not go back down until dawn. At least twice a week. Usually more. Wired and tired, every single night. I'd think, she has to be close, or she has to be tired — and I was always wrong.
During the first five years of Juju's life, I truly understood why sleep deprivation has been used as torture throughout history. It is the perfect way to break someone's psyche. In the middle of the night I would panic, or get angry, or just cry from pure frustration. My life was not a life. I was a walking zombie.
It hadn't started this way. When Juju was born — May 23, 2017 — I felt something in that delivery room I couldn't yet explain. What followed was shock, confusion, a long road of misdiagnosis, and finally the answer: a rare genetic disorder called CTNNB1. Before all of it, I worked at Nickelodeon in Times Square designing products for kids. I had the wardrobe, the friends, the life. Then came the diagnosis, the divorce, the unraveling — until I was broke, exhausted, and shattered into a million pieces. The sleep issue was the one thing I had to solve immediately, or I wasn't going to make it.
Juju and me at bedtime. This exact spot used to be a battlefield. Keep reading to find out how it became the safest place in our home.
"The answer to sleep seems so elusive, but the answer is always the same. Love." — Virginia Galente, founder, I AM Mission
The Search
"They handed us prescriptions. Nobody talked about the nervous system."
Here's what I learned the hard way: in the special-needs world, when a child can't sleep, the default answer is pharmaceutical. Another dose, another script, another shrug. And when those don't work — and for so many of our kids, they don't — parents are left alone at 2 AM with a wired child and an empty tank.
Nobody was talking about the nervous system. Nobody was talking about the fact that our kids live in a constant state of fight-or-flight — overstimulated, dysregulated, unable to feel safe enough to let go. And nobody, nobody, was talking about the caregiver: that a child this sensitive can feel your stress, your breath, your pace, your presence. That my dysregulation was in the room with hers.
Four years ago, from that broken place, I turned to God for answers — and the answer came in the form of frequency. I invested in a PEMF mat, and my life changed in a matter of weeks. Juju started sleeping through the night, more often than not. Her body seemed relieved after every session. It wasn't the whole cure — but it was a big part of it, and it opened the door to everything else. Then, about a year ago, I found something that changed how we use it entirely: a PEMF device small enough to fit in my hand, made by a former Space Shuttle chief engineer in Florida who had his own reasons for shrinking the technology.
That device is the Resona VIBE. It became one piece — a key piece — of the bedtime rhythm that gave us our nights back.
By The Numbers
5 years
of sleep deprivation before we found our rhythm — the reason every page of this guide exists
4 years
of consistent sleep success since — Juju now sleeps about 10:30 PM to 7 AM, night after night
10 steps
in the nightly protocol — breathwork, bath ritual, magnesium, lotion, PEMF, story, heart connection, sleep frequencies
~30 min
how long re-settling a night waking takes in Virginia's home now with the sleep setting running — down from hours
The Turn
What changed wasn't one thing. It was the rhythm.
Every failed sleep tip I ever tried failed for the same reason: it was a single piece, thrown at the problem in survival mode. A gummy here, a sound machine there. What finally worked was a container — the same signals of safety, in the same order, every single night, starting with the person my daughter reads most closely: me.
I reset my own nervous system first, because my frequency is the first frequency in the room. Then the room itself — dark, cool, clean, predictable. Then her body: warm water, Epsom salts, magnesium, lotion, gentle touch. Then the VIBE, running as she settles. Then story, heart connection, and the sleep frequencies that carry her the rest of the way.
Night after night, her body learned the message: we are safe, and it is time to rest.
Virginia's VIBE Settings
The three protocols we run — and the 2 AM backup
The VIBE ships with 60 core protocols and 70 Brain Wave Expansion protocols. These are the ones running in our home, and exactly when we run them:
| The moment | What we run, and why |
|---|---|
| Bedtime — Step 6 of the rhythm, while Juju settles | Sleep — the anchor of the whole routine. It runs after bath, magnesium, and lotion, as one more signal that the day is ending. |
| The deeper "why it works" | Vagus Nerve — our kids live wired and tired, stuck in fight-or-flight. The vagus nerve is the body's main highway to calm, and this protocol supports the shift toward rest. |
| The caregiver's own wind-down | Anxiety — run it on yourself. Your nervous system is the first frequency in the room, and your child can feel it. This one is for the parent as much as the child. |
| 2 AM — when she wakes anyway | Sleep → Delta — the middle-of-the-night backup. Delta is the brainwave state of deep sleep; in our home, running the sleep setting re-settles a night waking in about half an hour, down from hours. It helps me fall back asleep too. |
You can't overdose — consistency matters more than perfection. Select the protocol, press run, and let it finish while your child rests. Nothing for them to do, tolerate, or perform.
Inside The Sleep Reset
The 10-step rhythm, and what it's supporting
This is not another generic bedtime checklist. It's a complete protocol for the sensitive nervous system — your child's and yours.
| What you're supporting | What the guide gives you |
|---|---|
| The caregiver's nervous system | Heart-coherence breathwork and regulation practices — because the reset starts with you |
| The sleep environment | The "sleep container" checklist: dark, cool, clean, predictable — the same message every night |
| The body's wind-down | The body ritual: warm bath, Epsom salts, magnesium support, lotion, gentle touch |
| Deep calm & settling | How portable PEMF fits into the routine — at home, in transitions, after disruption |
| The drift into sleep | Story, heart-led presence, and calming sleep frequencies |
| The hard nights | Night-waking support, a 7-day sleep tracker, product recommendations, and parent reflection pages |
Sound Familiar?
Wired + Tired
Your child can't settle
Resists sleep, wakes often, overstimulated by light, sound, timing, touch — even your energy.
Dreading Bedtime
You're anxious before it starts
You never know how long tonight will take, or whether you'll get any rest at all.
Running On Empty
Your tank is empty too
You know your child feels your stress — and nobody has ever helped you regulate.
Tried Everything
Random tips haven't worked
Because pieces don't work in survival mode. Rhythms do.
Start Tonight
Two ways to begin — tonight, with your child's head on the pillow
The Complete Protocol
The $33 Sleep Reset
$33 $47
Instant digital download · exclusive discount
- The complete 60+ page guide — the exact rhythm from our home
- The gentle 10-step sleep protocol, start to finish
- Sleep container checklist & night-waking support
- 7-day sleep tracker, product list & parent reflection pages
- Start tonight with what you already have — add tools as you're ready
Created by Virginia Galente · I AM Mission
The Device From Our Routine
The Resona VIBE
$299
The pocket-size PEMF device Virginia uses in Step 6, every night
- 60 core + 70 Brain Wave Expansion protocols — including Sleep, Anxiety, Vagus Nerve & Delta for night wakings
- Fits in your hand — runs while your child settles, no clinic required
- Made by Resona Health, founded by former Space Shuttle chief engineer Mark Fox
- 30-day money-back guarantee · 1-year warranty · free shipping
Virginia is a Resona Health affiliate — purchases through this link support her mission at no extra cost to you.
Who I Am
From survival mode to mission
My girls and me, on the other side of the fog. Same family. Different nights.
I'm Virginia Galente — a next-generation special needs mom, author, and the founder of I AM Mission. Juju is 9 now. Her behavior improves every year, her cognitive skills keep growing, and bedtime went from nightmare to sacred ritual. What once felt like pain became the portal into my purpose: helping exhausted families turn survival into consciousness, and chaos into rhythm. I built this protocol because I needed it and it didn't exist. Now it does — and it's yours.
Not Ready Yet?
Come sit with parents who get it
Maybe tonight isn't the night you buy anything — I remember that season too. Join my free Facebook group for special-needs parents, where we share what's actually working at bedtime: the wins, the hard nights, and the honest misses. No hype. Just parents, rhythms, and hope.