diff --git a/src/search.cpp b/src/search.cpp
index 4eaf2e5e..d86f2493 100644
--- a/src/search.cpp
+++ b/src/search.cpp
@@ -1588,7 +1588,7 @@ void Thread::idle_loop() {
           // particular we need to avoid a deadlock in case a master thread has,
           // in the meanwhile, allocated us and sent the wake_up() call before we
           // had the chance to grab the lock.
-          if (!is_searching && Threads.sleepWhileIdle)
+          if (!is_searching && !do_exit)
               sleepCondition.wait(mutex);
 
           mutex.unlock();
diff --git a/src/thread.cpp b/src/thread.cpp
index 5f3b4d31..9bd74989 100644
--- a/src/thread.cpp
+++ b/src/thread.cpp
@@ -76,11 +76,14 @@ void TimerThread::idle_loop() {
   while (!do_exit)
   {
       mutex.lock();
-      do sleepCondition.wait_for(mutex, msec ? msec : INT_MAX);
-      while (!msec && !do_exit); // Don't allow wakeups when msec = 0
+
+      if (!do_exit)
+          sleepCondition.wait_for(mutex, msec ? msec : INT_MAX);
+
       mutex.unlock();
 
-      check_time();
+      if (msec)
+          check_time();
   }
 }