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 monito

Insomnia is a kind of sleep disorder which preclude a person from falling asleep or staying asleep as long as desired. In the argument presented the author states that a study was done on 30 volunteers who suffered from chronic insomnia for 3 weeks and based on it, a conclusion was deducted that lavender cures the insomnia. However the study has many loopholes because of which the claim cannot be fully justified. In order to validate the claim, the author has to present specific evidences.

The first loophole in the argument is the lack of details or vague informations. For instance the subjects of the study are not properly defined. the author states that they suffer from chronic insomnia but he fails to answer the basic question like the age, sex, medical history, etc that are requisite for any medical research. These information can influence the interpretation of the data. For eg a teenager who was recently diagnosed and is in good health and an aged person with other several medical conditions, who suffers from insomnia since long, are two very disparate cases . Only inconclusive result can be drawn by comparing them . Nonetheless the author can easily remedy the situation by presenting specific data which can strengthen the argument like a result from a study of 30 males ranging from ages 20-30 without any other medical problems, can sound more convincing.

Even during the study, the author keeps using vague and indefinite language.Initially he states that in the first week the patient took their usual medication and slept soundly but woke up tired. The medication leads to a element of ambiguity as the effects and consequences are not discussed. Next the author claims that the patients didn't take their medication in the next week and consequently slept less soundly and also woke up tired. The unclear meaning of "less" is troublesome as it does not elucidate the exact repercussions of not using the medications. Moving on, in the third week the volunteers slept longer and more soundly. Yet again how much longer? 2 hr? 5 min? Because of the vagueness of the author no definite result can be drawn.

One can also argue that the effects-long and sound sleep, can also be ascribed to a reason other than lavender. Placebo effect can be a valid contender . The controlled room is not the same as their normalconditions. Maybe their insomnia was due to environmental cause or even drug usage and accordingly the lack of such external factors cured their insomnia. Or maybe the conditions of the controlled room were even changed in the third week which in turn influenced the sleeping patterns of the volunteers. All the above mentioned reason can also cure the insomnia and hence make the conclusion baseless.

The main problem in author's claim is that he applies the conclusion of a specific case study to a more general issue. the inference drawn from 30 volunteers suffering from chronic insomnia, studied for 3 weeks cannot be applied to every other insomnia patient. The author does not take into the account the various difference between these 30 people and other patients in respect to age, sex, medical history and so on. The differences may or may not lead to any inadvertent effects. Due to this discrepancy the claim won't hold true.