Migration and the Body: Stress, Sleep, and Psychosomatic Experience

Migration is not only a psychological journey—it is also a physical one. The body often becomes the stage where hidden anxieties, unspoken grief, and silent fears reveal themselves.

Many migrants notice that after arriving in a new country, their bodies begin to react in unexpected ways: disrupted sleep, constant fatigue, headaches, stomach pain, or even chest tightness without any clear medical cause. These experiences are not imagined; they are the language of the body, expressing what words cannot yet capture.

From a psychoanalytic perspective, the body often speaks when the psyche is overwhelmed. The stress of adapting to a new environment—new language, new rules, new uncertainties—can destabilize the inner balance. At the same time, the mourning of what has been left behind continues silently, pressing on both mind and body. The result is a psychosomatic dialogue: the body carries the weight of what the psyche cannot yet process.

Sleep, in particular, becomes a vulnerable space. For some, insomnia sets in; for others, dreams become vivid, haunted by images of home or fears of the future. The unconscious uses sleep as a theater to work through unspoken conflicts, making the nights restless even when the days appear calm.

And yet, these bodily signals are not only symptoms; they are also guides. They remind us that migration is not just an external move but a profound internal transformation. To pay attention to the body’s language is to honor the truth of the migration experience.

Therapy provides a space where body and psyche can be reconnected—where stress, insomnia, and psychosomatic suffering can be understood not as weaknesses, but as meaningful expressions of an inner journey.

If you recognize these experiences in yourself, therapy can offer a safe space to explore the hidden stories your body is telling.