Obviously, these findings are hypothesis-generating only and will have to be tested in a prospective, randomized trial.

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"This article is quite interesting but it should be viewed as being hypothesis-generating, not something that's showing a firm conclusion, " says Kendal.

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As one of the first studies to look into the role that diet plays on sleep quality, the findings are more hypothesis-generating than confirming.

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From the use of surrogate endpoints (based on biological plausibility and the results of preclinical studies) to the distinction between correlation and causation, confounding (whether the effect size is too large to be explained away by confounding), and the hypothesis-generating nature of the inferential process.

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