While one is asleep, one’s body-muscles become relaxed and lose all stiffness. When a sleeping body is picked up, its muscles do not assist in the lifting and we feel the entire weight, almost like ‘dead-weight’. ‘Dead-weight’ refers to the placement of the weight. When an awakened person is picked up, he adjusts his weight by holding on to the other person’s neck and balancing out the weight. But a sleeping or unconscious person does not have control on his muscles and weight mass. Some of the mass shifts to below the body making it difficult to carry it.
Why are sleeping people heavier to lift than the ones who are awake?
