Day 50 An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia—the scent of lavender flowers—has now been proved effective

An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia— the scent of 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 electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, 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. Therefore, the study proves that lavender cures insomnia within a short period of time.

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

五问：

（1）“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 electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, 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”是事实， “An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia— the scent of lavender flowers—has now been proved effective”是结论，值得反驳吗？

（2）在做这个题目之前，建议大家先回顾一下：为什么没有对照组的实验是不能轻信的？本段中所描述的实验有对照组吗？

（3）30个慢性失眠症患者能够代表所有失眠症患者吗？“ 30”这个数字足够大吗？失眠症按周期分类，可分为短暂性失眠（小于一周）、短期性失眠（一周至一个月）和慢性失眠（超过一个月），三种类型的患病原因和治疗方法各异，所以只研究慢性失眠患者具有代表性吗？

（4）志愿者在第一周吃安眠药可以熟睡但感觉疲劳，第二周不吃药睡得不好且感觉更疲劳，这能体现出熏衣草花香治疗失眠的作用吗？是否可能只是药物起到了作用？

（5）慢性失眠症患者的症状在第三周得到了缓解，其原因除了可能是熏衣草花香之外，你能否罗列其他的原因？比如：他们已经适应了实验的环境，睡前听莫扎特的音乐、看无聊的书或电视节目等都可能会缓解失眠。