Different buildings have different sounds. Over time we become so adjusted to the sounds of the buildings we frequent that we have to stop and listen to be aware of them. Our current home has electric baseboard heat. That means that there are no air handlers other than bathroom and kitchen fans, which are generally off. Baseboard heat, however, is far from silent. It creaks and makes pops as the copper vanes expand with the heat. Once the room reaches temperature, however, the heating is very quiet. The result is that I am often aware of the sounds of air handling equipment when I am in buildings with forced air heat. The bigger the building, the bigger the blowers. Our church is mostly heated by hot water. Our offices have radiators which are very quiet. The sanctuary and fellowship hall, however, are heated by forced air units that blow air across grids of pipes carrying hot water. The result is that these huge units come to life and begin blowing when the thermostat calls for heat. The start-up of the fans makes a bit of noise, but the blowers are in a deep basement and most of the time they are very quiet - something that is most appropriate for worship space.

Our church underwent a big change last year when we installed new doors at the main entrance to the building. The old doors were frameless glass panels with poor weather stripping. Even when we installed plastic strips on the edges of the glass, plenty of air could pass through the doors. On windy days they would moan and whine as the air whistled through the gaps between the doors. The new doors seal and there is no more wind noise in the entryway of the church. You can stand there and hear the air passing through the ductwork in the walls, something of which I previously had been unaware.

The gift of quiet is a significant gift in a church.

I do, however, frequent buildings where the air handling equipment is much more evident. The Pennington County Jail, the annex and the public safety building all have giant air handlers that give the buildings a kind of low rumble pretty much all of the time. When the units aren’t supplying warm air for heating, they are moving cool air for cooling. You aren’t aware of the movement of the air in most of the buildings, but when you sit quietly, you become aware of the sound of the equipment that moves the air through ducts that are hidden in the walls and ceilings. Most of the time, these buildings are filled with activity and when I visit, I don’t spend much time in quiet contemplation.

It must be different for the prisoners, however. They have plenty of time on their hands to sit quietly and meditate. They have plenty of hours to listen to the rumbling of the machinery deep within the building. I imagine that it might be hard to learn to sleep in such a setting.

Compared to some animals, we humans don’t have a very refined sense of hearing and we are often not as in tune with our surroundings as some other creatures. Past generations learned to take advantage of their animals. After they had become used to horses, Lakota warriors used to sleep with their horses very close by, especially when they were away from camp. Horses have very sensitive hearing and use their ears to protect themselves from predators. The stirrings of the horses gave them warning of the presence of an enemy and they could take precautions to avoid danger.

I’m not sure how comfortably I would sleep with my horse’s hooves close to my head, but then again, the warriors out at night probably didn’t sleep all that well in the first place. They probably had to maintain an alertness that allowed them to doze occasionally, but most of the night they had to avoid deep sleep that would take time for them to rouse themselves.

People havre been studying sleep and sleeplessness for generations. Contemporary researchers have found some significant connections between sleep patterns and the overall health of their patients. Studies have found connections between insufficient sleep and serious diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. People who get sufficient sleep tend to experience less pain and have a lowered risk of injury.

I’m vaguely aware of these studies because I have never been a very good sleeper. I often wake in the night and rather than toss and turn in bed, I have a tendency to get up and read a book. Reading is relaxing for me, so it often helps me return to sleep, but there are nights when sleep is elusive and I cover a lot of territory in my books.

More worrisome to me is that lack of sleep can lead to fuzzy thinking and poor decision making. There are plenty of studies that demonstrate that a lack of sleep can make one substantially worse at solving logic and math problems and more prone to mistakes.

Mistakes in my line of work often result in hurt feelings. I try to get enough sleep so that I can at least avoid the mistakes that cause others pain or discomfort.

Recently we visited our daughter and son-in-law. Although he had a few days of vacation when we were visiting and was following a normal schedule, he often has to work late shifts and sometimes needs to work nights. To compensate, they have worked to make their bedroom an excellent place to sleep whenever sleep is available. They have dark blackout curtains on the windows and the room is very quiet. The home is set back from the road enough to diminish the sounds from neighbors and passing cars.

I, on the other hand, like a room where a little natural light comes in. My bedroom isn’t completely dark in the day. Whenever the weather allows, I have my window open so I can listen to the wind in the trees and, when I am lucky, the coyotes singing in the hills.

I guess I’m somewhere between those Lakota braves half-sleeping as they listened for their horses’ movements and my son-in-law sleeping in quiet darkness.

And something tells me I don’t want to try sleeping at the jail. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be good at that.

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