[en] The interaction of a two-level atomic ensemble with a quantized single-mode electromagnetic field in the presence of optical collisions is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The main focus is on achieving thermal equilibrium for coupled atom-light states (in particular dressed states). We propose a model of atomic dressed-state thermalization that accounts for the evolution of the pseudo-spin Bloch vector components and characterize the essential role of the spontaneous emission rate in the thermalization process. Our model shows that the time of thermalization of the coupled atom-light states depends strictly on the ratio of the detuning to the resonant Rabi frequency. The predicted time of thermalization is in the nanosecond domain at full optical power and about 10 times shorter than the natural lifetime in our experiment. Experimentally we investigate the interaction of the optical field with rubidium atoms in an ultrahigh-pressure buffer gas cell under the conditions of large atom-field detuning comparable to the thermal energy in frequency units. In particular, an observed asymmetry of the saturated lineshape is interpreted as evidence of thermal equilibrium of coupled atom-light states.