diff --git a/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.c b/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.c
index 2931303..aeaecc6 100644
--- a/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.c
+++ b/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.c
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ void lwevent_exit(void)
 int lwevent_loop(void)
 {
     while(!lwevent_loop_exit) {
-        if(lwevent_wait(-1) == -1) {
+        if(lwevent_wait(-1, 0) == -1) {
             if(errno == EINTR) continue;
             return -1;
         }
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ static void _lwevent_invalid(struct lwevent* ev)
  *  Wrapper around epoll_wait(2). For every returned event, we assume the object has an associated
  *  struct lwevent in the struct epoll_event.
  */
-int lwevent_wait(int timeout_ms)
+int lwevent_wait(int timeout_ms, void (*before_loop)(void))
 {
     int ret, i, revents;
     struct lwevent* ev;
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ int lwevent_wait(int timeout_ms)
     ret = epoll_wait(lwevent_epoll_fd, _lw_revents, _lw_revents_size, timeout_ms);
     if(ret == -1) return -1;
 
+    if(before_loop) before_loop();
+
     /* process returned events */
     for(i = 0; i < ret; ++i) {
         ev = (struct lwevent*)(_lw_revents[i].data.ptr);
diff --git a/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.h b/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.h
index 917ce11..95b8029 100644
--- a/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.h
+++ b/src/liblwevent/200_eventloop.h
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ int lwevent_loop(void);
 
 \param timeout_ms A timeout, in milliseconds. This function will return as soon as any events occur,
     but will return after \a timeout_ms milliseconds have elapsed.
+\param before_loop If specified, a function which is called after \c epoll_wait(2) but before 
+    processing events. May be 0.
 \returns Number of events processed.
 \retval 0 on timeout.
 \retval -1 on error (system call failed; see \a errno).
@@ -85,12 +87,16 @@ objects that are closed during the callbacks.
 \a timeout_ms may be specified as a negative number to disable timeouts and wait forever, or as 0 to
 return immediately even if no events are available. A positive number is a duration in milliseconds.
 
+\a before_loop may be used to run a function before looping over any returned events. Some programs
+may wish to record the time at the top of the event loop, for example, to avoid polling for it
+multiple times while processing events.
+
 \note If a signal is received while in \c epoll_wait(2), this function will return -1 and \a errno
     will be set to \c EINTR. This is not a permanent error condition. lwevent_loop() will catch this
     condition and continue to loop.
 
 */
-int lwevent_wait(int timeout_ms);
+int lwevent_wait(int timeout_ms, void (*before_loop)(void));