=七月流火=第三次作业 argument 167 by ianking7368

ianking7368UID: 2655993

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.
WORDS: 420(revised 460)
TIME: 00:28:00
DATE: 2009-8-23 下午 09:00:25

In this paragraph, the author concludes that lavender flowers have a effect of curing insomnia. To support his conclusion, the author cites a recent study that shows the volunteers enjoy
longer and sounder sleeps after they used the lavender-scented pillow. The conclusion seems reasonable at first sight; however, careful considerations reveal that the study suffers from several critical flaws and hence makes the conclusion drawn from it less persuasive.

To begin with, the author fails to give a clear definition of insomnia. Common sense tells me that people suffering from insomnia can't fell asleep easily or even can't sleep at night. However, in this study, none of the volunteers has such problems and indeed they just suffer from poor sleeping quality: sleep less soundly and feel tired. So in this sense, the study could only support lavender flowers has connections with sleeping quality, but not with insomnia.

In addition, even if I concede that a poor quality of sleep is equal to insomnia, however the study is not sufficient to prove lavender is really effective. The reasons lie in certain aspects as follows:

Firstly, just as mentioned in the paragraph, the volunteer actually take a kind of medicine which may cure insomnia. This behavior in fact strongly weakens the credibility of the study. Some may argue that it is after they stopped taking the medicine that their sleeping quality improved. However it is just likely that the medicine needs some time, then its true effect could be seen and examined. If it is true, then the author can't conclude it is the lavender, rather than the medicine cures the insomnia.
Secondly, another critical flaw of the study is that it lacks necessary controls. In a reliable scientific research, controls are need to rule out other possible factors which may affect the result. In this survey, nevertheless, no control is set. So it's is entirly (entirely)
possible that actually it is the special environment or the pillow itself that leads to the improvement of the volunteer’s sleep.
What's more important,
the sample of a research should be representative and relatively large in order to draw general conclusions. However, the author doesn't offer any detailed description about how the volunteers were selected; also, the sample is relatively small. Perhaps they are of the same age or have the same job. In this case, it would be unjustifiable to say lavender is effective to the general public.

In summary, the study fails to support the conclusion adequately. To better support it, the author should firstly give a clear definition of insomnia. Some controls are still needed in the study: some volunteer sleep in the same room with the same pillow but without lavender. Also, a lager sample would make the study more persuasive.