同主题ARGUMENT167 =August Rush=小组 by KevinSpacey

KevinSpaceyUID: 2645771

TOPIC: 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.

KevinSpaceyUID: 2645771

WORDS: 399
TIME: 01:05:00
DATE: 2009/8/10 11:36:22

Citing a study of the effect of lavender-scented pillow, the arguer concludes that over a short period of time lavender cures insomnia. However, the study rests on several flaws, hence, the conclusion is unconvincing.

It is not provided in the argument the definition of "insomnia". According to common sense, insomnia is a disease that people cannot fall into asleep. Yet, in the study, the researchers are concerned with the sleeping condition and the state after waking of the volunteers. This suggests that the researchers regard insomnia as a standard of the sleep quality. However, the sleep quality is irrelevant to the usual understanding of insomnia. To better assess the strength of the argument, the author should provide a clear definition of insomnia.

The representativeness of the sample is also under discredit. There are only 30 volunteers participate in the study which make the quantity of sample not large enough to reflect the objective situation of all the people. Furthermore, the author fails to provide the basic information about the volunteers' sleeping condition prior to the study. Thus, it is hard to tell if the lavender-scented pillows are effective or not.

The conclusion that lavender cures insomnia suggests it is presumed that lavender-scented pillow has causal relationship with the phenomenon that the volunteers slept longer and more soundly during the third week than before. However, the author fails to consider other alternatives to this phenomenon. Such alternatives may include the fact that at the beginning the volunteers are unacquainted with the room or the scented pillow while after half a month they become familiar with the environment thus they can sleep longer and more soundly. In one word, until the author finds out the actual explanation of the phenomenon I remain unconvinced that lavender-scented pillows improve the volunteers' sleeping quality.

Another flaw is that three weeks is not a significant long time to assess the effect of lavender. Given that there are other explanations of the phenomenon of the third week, we need to know what will happen on the fourth, fifth week or even larger to better assess the effect of lavender.

Overall, to make the argument more convincing, the author should provide the definition of the term "insomnia", substantiate that it is the pillow that help volunteers sleep longer and more soundly, and evaluate the representativeness of the study especially in consideration of the sample and experimental period.