When performing regression analysis, there are two primary and overarching goals. First, we want to determine and identify any underlying, systemic patterns in the data. If we can identify the systemic patterns, we may be able to identify the phenomena underlying the patterns and develop a deeper understanding of the system as a whole. If, through your analysis, you find that there is a pattern that repeats itself every 16 hours, you will be in a much better position to figure out what phenomenon is causing the pattern and take action. As with all ML tasks, that 16-hour pattern may be buried deep within the data and may not be identifiable at a glance.
The second major goal is to use the knowledge of the underlying patterns to make future predictions. The predictions that you make will only be as good as the analysis that powers the predictions. If there are...