argument167 飞跃dreams小组第五次作业

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   167 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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     In this argument, the author notes a recent study, in which 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored. The first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication, while the second and third, slept without any medicine. As a result, volunteers slept soundly but wakened tiredly in the first week, less soundly and more tired in the second week, while in the third week, they slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. It seems that lavender is effective for insomnia.
    However, in this argument, we are not informed why the 30 volunteers suffer from insomnia. As far as I know, there are three factors that can cause insomnia at least. The common kind is anxiety, people are not able to go into sleep because they are worried about a lot of things all day long, if this is the case, it is possible that lavender works as placebo and it can be replaced by any other kinds of flower, even just an implicit sentence. Some organic diseases also contribute to insomnia; in this case, it is almost impossible to cure insomnia without treating the primary disease. Another possibility is medicine-caused insomnia, and it can be cured just breaking away from given medicines. Thus, the conclusion is not well reasoned and incredible.
    Moreover, the author points out that in the third week, volunteers sleep longer and more soundly, yet, we don’t know how they feel after such a long and soundly sleeping. Perhaps, they feel far more tired or headache, even some sequels that influence their daily lives when they wake. And it is entirely possible that these 30 volunteers would rely on, even can’t live without lavender from then on as the author don’t tell us any information about the volunteers’ condition after taking apart in the study.
    Even if lavender is effective for insomnia, it is possible that it works in limited age or sex. Maybe it is useful for female while poor efficiency for male, or, it is a wonderful medicine for children while produce bad effects to the olds. In addition, this folk remedy may aggravate the primary disease of insomnia patient and cause worse result. Without taking the side effect of the lavender into account, the author’s consequence is unconvincing.
    In a word, the conclusion relies on scant evidences that render it unconvincing as it stands. To strengthen the conclusion, the author should provide more details about the study and ensure that there is not any side effect of this folk remedy. At the same time, I need to know the reason for insomnia from which the 30 volunteers suffered and how they feel during the third week, to better assess this argument.