argument167 谢谢!

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ARGUMENT167 - A folk remedy* for insomnia, the scent in lavender flowers, has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. During the second week, the volunteers discontinued their medication. As a result, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. This shows that over a short period of time lavender cures insomnia.

*A folk remedy is usually a plant-based form of treatment common to traditional forms of medicine, ones that developed before the advent of modern medical services and technology.
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    The author asserts that lavenders cures insomnia over a short period of time. To support the assertion, the author cited a recent three-week study involving 30 volunteers being monitored who slept on lavender-scented pillows each night. The author's account of the study reveals several critical problems which undermine the conclusion.
    The most apparent problem is that subjects slept more soundly and weakened less tired the first week than the second. The result showed nothing to the conclusion about lavender's effectiveness but helps to suggest that their usual sleeping medication was effective. Moreover, the author did not indicate whether the subjects used the medication during the third week. During the third week, their sleeping longer and more soundly than in the previous week may be contributed by the sleeping medication. Even if they have stopped the medication, they were making up for sleep they lost the previous week when they discontinued the regular medicine. Or perhaps they finally accustomed to the lavender-scented pillows which supported bad influence to their sleeps. Without ruling out the variable factors to their sleep in the process, we cannot believe the lavender-scented pillows explain the third week's result.
   Another problem is that the author does not provide comparison from beginning to end. The goal of the study is to prove the effectiveness of the scent in lavender flowers, but the study did not let the same subjects sleep on common pillows during three weeks with the same other factors and the same circumstance. It is unconvincing to conclude that the subjects benefited from sleeping on lavender-scented pillows without comparing how they slept with the pillows to how they sleep without them.
   Two final problems involve whether the sample of the study was sufficient and representative, maybe the 30 volunteers prefer to the scent and in their subjective mind and there is a temptation to believe the scent would do some help to their sleep. And the premise was not clear--I mean the notion of insomnia. Was it defined as the not realization to fall asleep or the suffering after sleep?
  In sum, we have reasons to doubt the method to conduct the study was unreasonable and it is groundless to conclude the effectiveness of lavender to insomnia without the clear definition of insomnia and the provision of comparisons.

(2007-8-3 15:02:50)