diff --git a/lib/routes/db.js b/lib/routes/db.js
index 7b5f01b..c84775a 100644
--- a/lib/routes/db.js
+++ b/lib/routes/db.js
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ module.exports = function(app, PouchDB) {
 
     if (req.query.feed === 'continuous' || req.query.feed === 'longpoll') {
       var heartbeatInterval;
+      var timeout;
       var heartbeat = (typeof req.query.heartbeat === 'number')
         ? req.query.heartbeat : 6000;
       var written = false;
@@ -96,6 +97,9 @@ module.exports = function(app, PouchDB) {
       }, heartbeat);
 
       var cleanup = function () {
+        if (timeout) {
+          clearTimeout(timeout);
+        }
         if (heartbeatInterval) {
           clearInterval(heartbeatInterval);
         }
@@ -117,6 +121,17 @@ module.exports = function(app, PouchDB) {
       } else { // longpoll
         // first check if there are >0. if so, return them immediately
         req.query.live = req.query.continuous = false;
+        if (req.query.timeout) {
+          timeout = setTimeout(function() {
+            written = true;
+            res.write(JSON.stringify({
+              results: [],
+              last_seq: req.query.since
+            }) + '\n');
+            res.end();
+            cleanup();
+          }, req.query.timeout);
+        }
         req.db.changes(req.query).on('complete', function (complete) {
           if (!complete.results) {
             // canceled, ignore
@@ -128,7 +143,11 @@ module.exports = function(app, PouchDB) {
             cleanup();
           } else { // do the longpolling
             req.query.live = req.query.continuous = true;
+
             var changes = req.db.changes(req.query).on('change', function (change) {
+              if (written) {
+                return;
+              }
               written = true;
               res.write(JSON.stringify({
                 results: [change],