TALLINN — The Tallinn Sauna Regulation Committee has received 47 formal noise complaints for the month of January, all citing the same violation: silence. Specifically, a silence described by complainants as “oppressive,” “too present,” and, in three separate submissions, “loud.”
The complaints were filed across eleven sauna facilities in Tallinn and two in Nõmme. The most common grievance, appearing in 31 of the 47 filings, was that the silence inside the sauna felt “more noticeable than usual.” Six complainants specified that they found it difficult to relax. Two said they had tried to start a conversation and been met with more silence, which they then also reported.
The Committee dispatched an inspector, Marit Org, to visit seven of the named facilities. Org spent a total of four hours across the saunas in question. She found them to be functioning normally. The temperature was correct. The steam was adequate. The silence was standard.
”There was nothing wrong with any of them,” Org told this reporter. “They were saunas. They were quiet. That is what saunas are.”
Upon receiving the inspector’s report, all 47 complainants were invited to return to the sauna for a follow-up assessment. Forty-three accepted. All forty-three withdrew their complaints within twenty minutes of sitting down. The remaining four did not respond. The Committee has filed their complaints as “resolved by implication.”
The Tallinn Sauna Regulation Committee, established in 2009, has previously handled complaints about excessive birch branch usage, a dispute over towel folding procedure, and one case involving a man who hummed. The humming complaint was upheld. The man received a formal warning.
January’s silence complaints represent a 340 percent increase over the previous record of eleven, set in 2022 during a period the Committee’s annual report refers to only as “the difficult winter.”
The Committee reminds all sauna users that silence is not a defect. It is the product. Please sit with it.