diff --git a/src/p2p/net_node.inl b/src/p2p/net_node.inl
index e3d804086..341598e80 100644
--- a/src/p2p/net_node.inl
+++ b/src/p2p/net_node.inl
@@ -1398,7 +1398,15 @@ namespace nodetool
         }
         if(zone.second.m_net_server.is_stop_signal_sent())
           return false;
-        conn_count = get_outgoing_connections_count(zone.second);
+        size_t new_conn_count = get_outgoing_connections_count(zone.second);
+        if (new_conn_count <= conn_count)
+        {
+          // we did not make any connection, sleep a bit to avoid a busy loop in case we don't have
+          // any peers to try, then break so we will try seeds to get more peers
+          boost::this_thread::sleep_for(boost::chrono::seconds(1));
+          break;
+        }
+        conn_count = new_conn_count;
       }
     }