diff --git a/src/ev_epoll.c b/src/ev_epoll.c
index abc22ba..f672c66 100644
--- a/src/ev_epoll.c
+++ b/src/ev_epoll.c
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include <common/config.h>
 #include <common/debug.h>
 #include <common/epoll.h>
+#include <common/hathreads.h>
 #include <common/standard.h>
 #include <common/ticks.h>
 #include <common/time.h>
@@ -141,6 +142,8 @@
 		_update_fd(fd);
 	}
 
+	thread_harmless_now();
+
 	/* compute the epoll_wait() timeout */
 	if (!exp)
 		wait_time = MAX_DELAY_MS;
@@ -161,6 +164,8 @@
 	tv_update_date(wait_time, status);
 	measure_idle();
 
+	thread_harmless_end();
+
 	/* process polled events */
 
 	for (count = 0; count < status; count++) {