Medical doctor: Sleep deprivation is the cause of many social ills, ra

Question

Medical doctor: Sleep deprivation is the cause of many social ills, ranging from irritability to potentially dangerous instances of impaired decision making. Most people today suffer from sleep deprivation to some degree. Therefore we should restructure the workday to allow people flexibility in scheduling their work hours.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the medical doctor's argument?

(A) The primary cause of sleep deprivation is overwork.

(B) Employees would get more sleep if they had greater latitude in scheduling their work hours.

(C) Individuals vary widely in the amount of sleep they require.

(D) More people would suffer from sleep deprivation today than did in the past if the average number of hours worked per week had not decreased.

(E) The extent of one's sleep deprivation is proportional to the length of one's workday.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Following is the structure of the medical doctor’s argument:

Premise: Sleep deprivation is the cause of many social ills, ranging from irritability to potentially dangerous instances of impaired decision making.

Premise: Most people today suffer from sleep deprivation to some degree.

Conclusion: Therefore we should restructure the workday to allow people flexibility in scheduling their work hours.

The first premise contains a causal assertion (not a causal conclusion), and the second premise indicates that most people suffer from the stated cause. This combination would lead to the conclusion that most people have a social ill (which could be irritability or impaired decision making, or something in between). However, the conclusion in the argument leaps over this idea to conclude that the workday should be restructured. The missing link—or assumption—in the argument is that restructuring the workday would alleviate the sleep deprivation. As always, whenever you see a gap in the argument, you can strengthen the argument by eliminating that gap. By relating sleep to work, answer choice (B) closes the gap in the argument.

Answer choice (A): This is a tricky answer, and the key word is “overwork.” While the author clearly believes that work schedules affect sleep, this does not mean that employees are being overworked. For example, a person may be sleep deprived because they have to come into work at 8 A.M. Perhaps they have children so they must get up very early to take care of their family. The person might then work a normal eight hour day and be sleep deprived not because of overwork but because of rising early.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer.  By indicating that employees would avoid sleep deprivation with a revised workday, this answer affirms that the leap (or gap) made in the argument is not an unreasonable one.

Answer choice (C): This answer may hurt the argument by suggesting that some individuals cannot be helped by the restructuring of the workday. At best, this answer has no impact on the argument because we already know that most people suffer from sleep deprivation to some degree.

Answer choice (D): This answer addresses the fact that the hours worked per week has decreased. But the argument is not about the average number of hours worked, but rather the way that those hours affect sleep. Thus, this answer does not help the conclusion that people should be allowed flexibility in scheduling.

Answer choice (E): The argument does not suggest that the workday will be shortened, only that the day will be structured so that people have more flexibility in scheduling their hours. Thus, knowing that the extent of sleep deprivation is proportional to the length of one’s workday does not strengthen the argument.

LGIX · Answer

Hi!

I am trying to understand better the weakener on a plan type question.

My question is: would answer A be considered a Weakener of the argument? In GMAT standards could stating a reason like this mean that the proposed flexibility plan would be ineffective? And if so, would it still be a weakener if it just said that it is A cause of sleep deprivation and not THE PRIMARY cause?

Thanks in advance!!

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

Yeah, good question  lguerreromeseguer . A huge thing to keep in mind is that with Plan/Strategy questions, the stated goal or objective is everything. Here this is an older question (I remember teaching this one back in 2003 when I started) so it works okay as a Strengthen-the-argument question, but if you're looking for good "Weaken the Plan" logic let's try this version:

Sleep deprivation is the cause of many social ills, ranging from irritability to potentially dangerous instances of impaired decision making. Most people today suffer from sleep deprivation to some degree.  In order to reduce sleep deprivation for their employees , companies should restructure the workday to allow people flexibility in scheduling their work hours.

Which of the following most suggests that the plan outlined above will not achieve its goals?

(A) The primary cause of sleep deprivation is overwork.
(B) Employees would get more sleep if they had greater latitude in scheduling their work hours.
(C) Individuals vary widely in the amount of sleep they require.
(D) More people would suffer from sleep deprivation today than did in the past if the average number of hours worked per week had not decreased.
(E) The extent of one's sleep deprivation is proportional to the length of one's workday.

***Note - I changed the intro to the last sentence to make it a valid plan/strategy problem, identifying that the goal is to reduce sleep deprivation.***

When you're doing plan/strategy, make sure you understand the parameters of the goal. Here it's just to "reduce" sleep deprivation, not eliminate it altogether. And that's where choice (A) would get interesting. Even if the  primary  cause of sleep deprivation is overwork, and the plan doesn't address the length of the workday, there could be other causes (like the time of day you wake up, etc.) that the plan would address. So I wouldn't choose (A) in a weaken the plan context...it actually has all the makings of a good trap answer, since it gets you thinking "hey there are bigger causes of this problem we should address" when in reality the goal is just to reduce it, so attacking lesser causes can get you that reduction.

But choice (E) is a pretty good Weakener. If the extent of sleep deprivation is proportional to the length of one's workday, that suggests that length of workday is the only driver (it's probably a stronger answer if it says "directly proportional" so that it's really clear that length of workday is the only factor...the longer your workday the more sleep deprived you are). In that case, addressing anything other than the length of the workday just wouldn't have any effect.

(Caveats here...I'm sure you could make a case that you need something stronger like "directly proportional" and not just "proportional" so don't take this one as an official problem if you find fault in E, but for teaching purposes of "what if this were a Weaken the Plan?" I think the above is worth learning from, at least)

Paras96 · Answer

(A) The primary cause of sleep deprivation is overwork.
 - This option suggests that overwork is the primary cause of sleep deprivation. While this information may be relevant to the broader discussion of sleep deprivation, it doesn't necessarily strengthen the argument for restructuring the workday. It doesn't directly address the idea that allowing flexibility in work hours would reduce sleep deprivation.

(B) Employees would get more sleep if they had greater latitude in scheduling their work hours.
 - This option directly supports the medical doctor's argument. It implies that giving employees more control over their work hours would lead to improved sleep patterns. This aligns with the idea that restructuring the workday could help mitigate sleep deprivation and its associated social ills.

(C) Individuals vary widely in the amount of sleep they require.
 - This option provides information about individual differences in sleep needs. While it's an interesting point, it doesn't directly strengthen the argument regarding restructuring the workday to combat sleep deprivation. It doesn't address the core premise of the argument.

(D) More people would suffer from sleep deprivation today than did in the past if the average number of hours worked per week had not decreased.
 - This option suggests that if the average work hours had not decreased over time, more people would suffer from sleep deprivation today. While this may be true, it doesn't directly strengthen the argument for restructuring the workday in the present. It focuses on historical trends rather than the proposed solution.

(E) The extent of one's sleep deprivation is proportional to the length of one's workday.
 - This option implies a direct relationship between the length of the workday and the extent of sleep deprivation. While this supports the idea that restructuring the workday could reduce sleep deprivation, it doesn't provide as strong and explicit support as option (B) does, which directly links flexibility in work hours to getting more sleep.

In summary, option (B) is the most relevant and supportive of the medical doctor's argument because it directly addresses the idea that allowing greater latitude in work hour scheduling would lead to employees getting more sleep, which is the primary goal of the proposed solution to combat sleep deprivation.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Medical doctor: Sleep deprivation is the cause of many social ills, ra

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