diff --git a/conf.d/killprocs b/conf.d/killprocs
index 76a2bc9c..1c93b89d 100644
--- a/conf.d/killprocs
+++ b/conf.d/killprocs
@@ -4,3 +4,7 @@
 # The setting is called killall5_opts because the options here are meant
 # to be identical to those you could pass to killall5.
 killall5_opts=""
+
+# If you need to call sleep after each kill attempt during shutdown, set
+# the amount of time you need to sleep here.
+# sleep_time=0
diff --git a/init.d/killprocs.in b/init.d/killprocs.in
index fcf1364d..7b96a7a7 100644
--- a/init.d/killprocs.in
+++ b/init.d/killprocs.in
@@ -20,8 +20,10 @@ start()
 {
 	ebegin "Terminating remaining processes"
 	kill_all 15 ${killall5_opts}
+	sleep ${sleep_time:-0}
 	eend 0
 	ebegin "Killing remaining processes"
+	sleep ${sleep_time:-0}
 	kill_all 9 ${killall5_opts}
 	eend 0
 }