Page 94 - JCBP-3-2

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Impact of sleep on psychosomatic health

REM sleep and especially during dreaming. A temporal a psychological point of view, the reason why patients
relationship has, however, been demonstrated for sleep suffering from psychosomatic disorders are so sensitive
deprivation as a mediating factor between stress and to changes in sleep and dreaming relative to the general
exacerbation of digestive symptomatology, necessitating population is that they often overlap with the psychological
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future studies confirm whether this relationship is also corollary of alexithymia, described by Sifneos. He
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valid in the long term and for other organ systems. noted certain behavioral and reasoning characteristics of
The practical usefulness of all these concepts is evidenced patients with psychosomatic pathology, namely, excessive
by attempts to prevent, treat, and ameliorate psychosomatic preoccupation with somatic complaints, but with a marked
pathologies through sleep interventions. Although inability to find the right words to describe their distress,
there is much evidence in the literature on the treatment with infrequent dreams, and inappropriate emotions
of sleep-related pathologies by pharmacological and regarding the situation in which they find themselves.
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psychotherapeutic methods, few studies have investigated Other papers also identify these patients as having an
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the value of these treatments in relation to psychosomatic apparent intellectual inability to describe their emotions,
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pathology. The only study found in the search was that of and their failure to respond to stimuli of the inner life in
Friedman et al., who successfully relieved the symptoms a psychic manner, including dreaming, predisposes them
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of neurodermatitis with a drug that inhibits REM sleep, to respond to these stimuli in a somatic manner. From a
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adding yet another perspective to the holistic treatment that Freudian point of view, dreaming, a specific phenomenon
these diseases and these patients require. of the REM sleep, is a way in which the psychic energy
The implications that all these data have in a psycho- accumulated during the wakefulness can be released
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medical context are very valuable from a theoretical point through recollection and analysis. In patients with
of view, for understanding the mechanisms that control psychosomatic pathology, the low percentage of recalled
the relationship between the psyche and the body. From dreams is equivalent to the accumulation of psychic energy

Figure 1. Model of interaction between psychological factors, REM sleep duration, and symptomatology in psychosomatic disorders
Abbreviation and symbols: REM: Rapid eye movement; ↑: Increased; ↓: Decreased.

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 88 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.4997