A patient complained of feeling constantly fatigued. It was determined that the patient averaged only four to six ho...

Balwant on November 17, 2020

I have the same question. I was stuck between these two answer choices. Is B a trap answer?

Andres on December 17, 2021

I believe it is because the lack of sleep (only 4 to 6 hours) is already addressed in the stimulus as being a contributing factor to the patients condition. so the initial two hours of sleep is irrelevant to the patient's betterment. Also, the stimulus is set up in a way that is meant to be a paradox between not getting enough sleep and not advising more sleep. so what i asked myself is "why would you not advise someone who does not get enough sleep to sleep more to potentially improve their condition?" I also chose B at first, but when going over the answer again it kind of clicked in my head this way.

Ravi on February 11, 2022

The problem with B is that even if the first few hours of sleep do the most to get rid of fatigue, it could still be true that more hours of sleep will still help to reduce the patient's fatigue even more, so B does not resolve the doctors's lack of advice about more sleep.

With E, it does a great job in resolving the discrepancy. It's possible that the patient in question is someone who has trouble sleeping/an insomniac. If this were the case, then the doctor telling them to sleep more could put more pressure on the patient and actually result in them sleeping even less, as the worry of not following the doctor's orders could make their insomnia more of of a problem. This is why E resolves the paradox, so it's the right answer choice.