Comparison of Time-restricted Feeding and Continuous Feeding in Critically Ill Patients

In the nutrition guideline (A.S.P.E.N guideline), there was no recommendation about the feeding type in enteral feeding of critically ill patients. Continuous feeding is the most popular feeding type in ICU because of its less nursing burden and reducing the aspiration incidence theoretically. However, some previous studies demonstrated that there were no complications differences between continuous and time-restricted feedings（such as intermittent feedings）. In ICU, the disorder of protein synthesis is a universal problem and is associated with ICU acquired weakness. Time-restricted feeding is more physical than continuous feeding. In some animal researches, time-restricted feeding was proved to have a greater stimulatory effect on protein synthesis than continuous feeding. Besides of light, time-restricted feeding can may also adjust the biological rhythms. It is known that biological clocks could affect energy metabolism, emotion and so on. Until now, there are no enough clinical studies to prove the advantages in time-restricted feeding in ICU patients.So researchers designed the study to compare the time-restricted feeding and continuous feeding effect(especially protein synthesis) on ICU patients.