diff --git a/Godeps/Godeps.json b/Godeps/Godeps.json
index 200cd99259c..8307f0fb11e 100644
--- a/Godeps/Godeps.json
+++ b/Godeps/Godeps.json
@@ -276,6 +276,10 @@
 		{
 			"ImportPath": "gopkg.in/tomb.v1",
 			"Rev": "dd632973f1e7218eb1089048e0798ec9ae7dceb8"
+		},
+		{
+			"ImportPath": "github.com/chriscool/go-sleep",
+			"Rev": "743ab5f1bb487edf1772bc29ca0bdf572b40785e"
 		}
 	]
 }
diff --git a/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/LICENSE b/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/LICENSE
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7a6cf794e8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+The MIT License (MIT)
+
+Copyright (c) 2014 Juan Batiz-Benet
+Copyright (c) 2015 Christian Couder
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
+all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
+THE SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/README.md b/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..09d7cf6f73d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# go-sleep sleeps for some duration
+
+This unix tool is a thin wrapper around `time.Sleep()`.
+It aims to provide a portable way to sleep for an amount of time that
+need not to be a number of seconds.
+
+See https://godoc.org/time#ParseDuration for how the duration can be
+specified.
+
+### Install
+
+```sh
+go install github.com/chriscool/go-sleep
+```
+
+### Usage:
+
+```
+> go-sleep
+Usage: go-sleep <duration>
+Valid time units are "ns", "us" (or "µs"), "ms", "s", "m", "h".
+See https://godoc.org/time#ParseDuration for more.
+> time go-sleep 100ms
+
+real    0m0.104s
+user    0m0.000s
+sys     0m0.007s
+```
+
+### License
+
+MIT
diff --git a/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/go-sleep.go b/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/go-sleep.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..be5b6a1485c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep/go-sleep.go
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"time"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	if len(os.Args) != 2 {
+		usageError()
+	}
+	d, err := time.ParseDuration(os.Args[1])
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Could not parse duration: %s\n", err)
+		usageError()
+	}
+
+	time.Sleep(d)
+}
+
+func usageError() {
+	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Usage: %s <duration>\n", os.Args[0])
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, `Valid time units are "ns", "us" (or "µs"), "ms", "s", "m", "h".`)
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "See https://godoc.org/time#ParseDuration for more.")
+	os.Exit(-1)
+}
diff --git a/test/Makefile b/test/Makefile
index a6d99dab963..cc5e1e933bb 100644
--- a/test/Makefile
+++ b/test/Makefile
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 
-BINS = bin/random bin/multihash bin/ipfs bin/pollEndpoint bin/iptb
+BINS = bin/random bin/multihash bin/ipfs bin/pollEndpoint bin/iptb bin/go-sleep
 IPFS_ROOT = ../
 IPFS_CMD = ../cmd/ipfs
 RANDOM_SRC = ../Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/jbenet/go-random
 MULTIHASH_SRC = ../Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/jbenet/go-multihash
 IPTB_SRC = ../Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/whyrusleeping/iptb
 POLLENDPOINT_SRC= ../thirdparty/pollEndpoint
+GOSLEEP_SRC = ../Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/chriscool/go-sleep
 
 # User might want to override those on the command line
 GOFLAGS =
@@ -41,6 +42,10 @@ bin/iptb: $(call find_go_files, $(IPTB_SRC)) IPFS-BUILD-OPTIONS
 	@echo "*** installing $@ ***"
 	go build $(GOFLAGS) -o bin/iptb $(IPTB_SRC)
 
+bin/go-sleep: $(call find_go_files, $(GOSLEEP_SRC)) IPFS-BUILD-OPTIONS
+	@echo "*** installing $@ ***"
+	go build $(GOFLAGS) -o bin/go-sleep $(GOSLEEP_SRC)
+
 test: test_expensive
 
 test_expensive: verify_gofmt
diff --git a/test/sharness/Makefile b/test/sharness/Makefile
index f21e02971c2..100f952c80a 100644
--- a/test/sharness/Makefile
+++ b/test/sharness/Makefile
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 T = $(sort $(wildcard t[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-*.sh))
 BINS = bin/random bin/multihash bin/ipfs bin/pollEndpoint \
-	   bin/iptb
+	   bin/iptb bin/go-sleep
 SHARNESS = lib/sharness/sharness.sh
 IPFS_ROOT = ../..
 
diff --git a/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh b/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh
index d58fef6f005..73b55b343c8 100644
--- a/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh
@@ -55,38 +55,33 @@ test_cmp_repeat_10_sec() {
 	for i in $(test_seq 1 100)
 	do
 		test_cmp "$1" "$2" >/dev/null && return
-		sleep 0.1
+		go-sleep 100ms
 	done
 	test_cmp "$1" "$2"
 }
 
 test_run_repeat_60_sec() {
-	for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6
+	for i in $(test_seq 1 600)
 	do
-		for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-		do
-			(test_eval_ "$1") && return
-			sleep 1
-		done
+		(test_eval_ "$1") && return
+		go-sleep 100ms
 	done
 	return 1 # failed
 }
 
 test_wait_output_n_lines_60_sec() {
-	for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6
+	for i in $(test_seq 1 600)
 	do
-		for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-		do
-			test $(cat "$1" | wc -l | tr -d " ") -ge $2 && return
-			sleep 1
-		done
+		test $(cat "$1" | wc -l | tr -d " ") -ge $2 && return
+		go-sleep 100ms
 	done
 	actual=$(cat "$1" | wc -l | tr -d " ")
 	test_fsh "expected $2 lines of output. got $actual"
 }
 
 test_wait_open_tcp_port_10_sec() {
-	for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10; do
+	for i in $(test_seq 1 100)
+	do
 		# this is not a perfect check, but it's portable.
 		# cant count on ss. not installed everywhere.
 		# cant count on netstat using : or . as port delim. differ across platforms.
@@ -94,7 +89,7 @@ test_wait_open_tcp_port_10_sec() {
 		if [ $(netstat -aln | egrep "^tcp.*LISTEN" | egrep "[.:]$1" | wc -l) -gt 0 ]; then
 			return 0
 		fi
-		sleep 1
+		go-sleep 100ms
 	done
 	return 1
 }
@@ -247,13 +242,13 @@ test_kill_repeat_10_sec() {
 	kill $1
 	for i in $(test_seq 1 100)
 	do
-		sleep 0.1
+		go-sleep 100ms
 		! kill -0 $1 2>/dev/null && return
 	done
 
 	# if not, try once more, which will skip graceful exit
 	kill $1
-	sleep 1
+	go-sleep 1s
 	! kill -0 $1 2>/dev/null && return
 
 	# ok, no hope. kill it to prevent it messing with other tests