Delegate: Cristina Frange
Affiliation: Brazilian Sleep Association
Short Bio: Dr. Cristina Frange is a sleep physiotherapist, working as a clinician and a researcher. She earned her postdoctoral degree in the Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, from the Neuroscience Program at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in 2022; graduated with a Ph.D. in Medicine and Biology of Sleep in 2017 from the Sleep Division of the Department of Psychobiology of the same university. Her research focuses on non-pharmacological interventions to improve sleep disorders and how sleep optimization can improve rehabilitation outcomes.
Dr. Frange has presented on sleep and its relevance to physical therapy practice at national and international conferences. She was part of the team that presented a Discussion Session on sleep and physiotherapy at the World Physiotherapy Congress (Geneve, Switzerland, 2019), a course on Sleep and Physiotherapy for the Israeli Association of Physical Therapy (Tel Aviv, Israel, 2020), and for the Slovenian Physical Therapy Association (Online, 2022).
She edited the book Sleep and Physical Therapy: a Comprehensive Guide for Practitioners, published in 2022, and is finishing the editing of Clinical Cases in Sleep Physical Therapy, to be launched this year, both by Springer.
She is a member of the Brazilian Council of Sleep Physiotherapists, the Brazilian Sleep Association, a member of the Health Promotion for Life and Work network, and a student of the World Sleep Academy, from World Sleep.
She loves to collaborate and learn, nationally and internationally.
Activity: Brief video for the Brazilian Sleep Association (sleep drops) about: “I get nuts only to think about using positive airway pressure! What to do?”
The video explains that we need help from health care providers and that the sleep physiotherapist can help with desensitization techniques, adaptation, and positive reinforcement for the understanding of sleep and OSA, and thus PAP devices, and be closer to the patient at the beginning of the use of the PAP devices. The instruction is to look for help because treatment is very patient-centered and individually tailored.
The video will be on social media, such as Facebook and Instagram of the official Brazilian Sleep Association.
Location: online
Date of Activity: from March 12th to 19th (sleep week)
Submitted by: Cristina Frange
