diff --git a/src/task.c b/src/task.c
index cabfcbe..293aefe 100644
--- a/src/task.c
+++ b/src/task.c
@@ -219,11 +219,12 @@
 void wake_expired_tasks()
 {
 	struct task_per_thread * const tt = sched; // thread's tasks
+	int max_processed = global.tune.runqueue_depth;
 	struct task *task;
 	struct eb32_node *eb;
 	__decl_thread(int key);
 
-	while (1) {
+	while (max_processed-- > 0) {
   lookup_next_local:
 		eb = eb32_lookup_ge(&tt->timers, now_ms - TIMER_LOOK_BACK);
 		if (!eb) {
@@ -298,6 +299,8 @@
 	while (1) {
 		HA_RWLOCK_WRLOCK(TASK_WQ_LOCK, &wq_lock);
   lookup_next:
+		if (max_processed-- <= 0)
+			break;
 		eb = eb32_lookup_ge(&timers, now_ms - TIMER_LOOK_BACK);
 		if (!eb) {
 			/* we might have reached the end of the tree, typically because