diff --git a/vm/src/unix/os/os_unix.cpp b/vm/src/unix/os/os_unix.cpp
index f415691..10255cf 100644
--- a/vm/src/unix/os/os_unix.cpp
+++ b/vm/src/unix/os/os_unix.cpp
@@ -632,12 +632,35 @@ int OS::min_core(caddr_t addr, size_t len, char *vec) {
   # error which?
 #endif

+static pthread_t time_thread;
+static pthread_mutex_t mutex1 = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
+static timeval mytime;
+
+static void* time_func(void*) {
+  while (1) {
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&mutex1);
+    gettimeofday(&mytime, 0);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&mutex1);
+
+    usleep(100000);
+  }
+  return 0;
+}
+

 void OS::real_time(smi buf[]) {
-  struct timeval t;
-  gettimeofday(&t, 0); // changed for OS X, maybe should use unix headers after all?
-  buf[0] = t.tv_sec / seconds_per_day;                               //days
-  buf[1] = (t.tv_sec % seconds_per_day) * 1000 + (t.tv_usec / 1000); //msecs
+  static int init = 0;
+  if (!init) {
+    gettimeofday(&mytime, 0);
+    pthread_create (&time_thread, NULL, time_func, NULL);
+    init = 1;
+  }
+  pthread_mutex_lock(&mutex1);
+  int tv_sec = mytime.tv_sec;
+  int tv_usec = mytime.tv_usec;
+  pthread_mutex_unlock(&mutex1);
+  buf[0] = tv_sec / seconds_per_day;                               //days
+  buf[1] = (tv_sec % seconds_per_day) * 1000 + (tv_usec / 1000); //msecs
 }