Two preliminary studies on sleep and psychotherapy.

Abstract Two preliminary studies were conducted to assess the effects of an intensive outpatient psychotherapy, Feeling Therapy, on sleep. This therapy was chosen because of its demonstrated ability to affect its patients' dreams. In the first study a newly entering female patient was recorded across the first three weeks of intensive daily therapy. In contrast to two control subjects recorded across a similar time period, she demonstrated low REM times and short REM latencies on the average, and considerably greater variability in nearly every parameter. In the second study, two patients were recorded across three days (the middle of which was the day of a therapy session) first when new in therapy and then again after two and one-half years of therapy. It was found that when new in therapy both subjects spent nights of significantly altered sleep the day of the therapy session. One subject showed no REM sleep whatsoever while the other showed a 10 min REM latency and low REM time. The significance of these findings and the direction of future research is discussed.