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I'm curious to find a word for those who sleep "like a log", very deeply. Those who once asleep are very difficult to wake.

For example in all Iranian languages, there is an expression which translates literally as:

My sleep is heavy.

His sleep is very heavy.

How heavy your sleep is!

In addition, I already found an adjective (sound asleep) which is very rare to use.

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    It's probably true to say that sound asleep is becoming a (very) little dated/literary by comparison with fast asleep, but they're both still perfectly common, not "very rare" We usually apply heavy to the person rather than the activity, so a heavy sleeper is likely to be fast asleep.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 16:22
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    In English, this person would be known as a heavy sleeper
    – mike
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 16:35
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    @Yazdan Samiei Poor: Haha - NO! It's almost impossible to imagine a context where you could say I'm fast asleep, since being fast asleep is a temporary state during which it's not normally possible to speak under conscious / voluntary control. Note that I'm a heavy sleeper is edging out I'm a sound sleeper over recent decades.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 16:41
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    @Yazdan Samiei Poor: I'd like to think I was laughing with you, not at you. That's to say I was hoping that you would also laugh once you'd understood the implications of the"definition" I followed up with (which I specifically included because I guessed you might not appreciate why it was funny if I didn't explain exactly what "fast asleep" means, and how it's used).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 17:24
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    Where I come from (eastern part of the US) sound asleep is definitely in use, and I have no sense that its use is on the wane. It doesn't mean that the person usually falls into a deep sleep as he is a heavy sleeper does; to be sound asleep means to be in a deep sleep.
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 21:36

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As mentioned in the comments, "sound sleeper" or "heavy sleeper" are both used, specifically in the context of someone who doesn't wake up easily.

My roommate came home late last night and started practicing the drums, but I'm such a heavy sleeper I didn't hear a thing.

"I slept like a log" is the most common idiomatic expression, but usually when you have a deep and restful sleep.

My new bed is so comfortable, I slept like a log!

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    Until about a century ago, slept like a top was more common than slept like a log. The former still occurs, but it's a bit dated today, and mainly restricted to older people and literary contexts.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 17:28
  • Why "like a top"? Did they mean the children's toy that spins and spins? Doesn't seem like a restful metaphor ...
    – Andrew
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 18:55
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    Your guess would have been as good as mine at the time when we wrote our comments above, but this website says When a top is spinning well the precessional effect causes its axis to remain stationary and it can appear to be still, that is, 'sleeping' (where I'm guessing at least some visitors here will need to look up precessional! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 29, 2016 at 19:00

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