diff --git a/src/redis.c b/src/redis.c
index d4d91f176f6d833f8771b32368388d60776526a9..77c26b97ef033a5841d0423713d9a9ab340bd01f 100644
--- a/src/redis.c
+++ b/src/redis.c
@@ -622,9 +622,10 @@ void updateDictResizePolicy(void) {
  * keys that can be removed from the keyspace. */
 void activeExpireCycle(void) {
     int j;
+    long long start = mstime();
 
     for (j = 0; j < server.dbnum; j++) {
-        int expired;
+        int expired, iteration = 0;
         redisDb *db = server.db+j;
 
         /* Continue to expire if at the end of the cycle more than 25%
@@ -653,6 +654,12 @@ void activeExpireCycle(void) {
                     server.stat_expiredkeys++;
                 }
             }
+            /* We can't block forever here even if there are many keys to
+             * expire. So after a given amount of milliseconds return to the
+             * caller waiting for the other active expire cycle. */
+            iteration++;
+            if ((iteration & 0xff) == 0 &&  /* & 0xff is the same as % 255 */
+                (mstime()-start) > REDIS_EXPIRELOOKUPS_TIME_LIMIT) return;
         } while (expired > REDIS_EXPIRELOOKUPS_PER_CRON/4);
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/redis.h b/src/redis.h
index 2b54c709d60bead3dcadf5141b6609f640c5e2a0..8ac842479d9c835291f9ec48026a84cb701ed5c6 100644
--- a/src/redis.h
+++ b/src/redis.h
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 #define REDIS_DEFAULT_DBNUM     16
 #define REDIS_CONFIGLINE_MAX    1024
 #define REDIS_EXPIRELOOKUPS_PER_CRON    10 /* lookup 10 expires per loop */
+#define REDIS_EXPIRELOOKUPS_TIME_LIMIT 25  /* Time limit in milliseconds */
 #define REDIS_MAX_WRITE_PER_EVENT (1024*64)
 #define REDIS_SHARED_SELECT_CMDS 10
 #define REDIS_SHARED_INTEGERS 10000