diff --git a/ldclient/sse_client.py b/ldclient/sse_client.py
index 3534a846..d83982fa 100644
--- a/ldclient/sse_client.py
+++ b/ldclient/sse_client.py
@@ -16,10 +16,12 @@
 
 
 class SSEClient(object):
-    def __init__(self, url, last_id=None, retry=3000, session=None, **kwargs):
+    def __init__(self, url, last_id=None, retry=3000, connect_timeout=10, read_timeout=300, session=None, **kwargs):
         self.url = url
         self.last_id = last_id
         self.retry = retry
+        self._connect_timeout = connect_timeout
+        self._read_timeout = read_timeout
 
         # Optional support for passing in a requests.Session()
         self.session = session
@@ -46,7 +48,12 @@ def _connect(self):
 
         # Use session if set.  Otherwise fall back to requests module.
         requester = self.session or requests
-        self.resp = requester.get(self.url, stream=True, **self.requests_kwargs)
+        self.resp = requester.get(
+            self.url,
+            stream=True,
+            timeout=(self._connect_timeout, self._read_timeout),
+            **self.requests_kwargs)
+
         self.resp_file = self.resp.raw
 
         # TODO: Ensure we're handling redirects.  Might also stick the 'origin'
diff --git a/ldclient/streaming.py b/ldclient/streaming.py
index a2fa6c93..f6ce61c2 100644
--- a/ldclient/streaming.py
+++ b/ldclient/streaming.py
@@ -4,11 +4,15 @@
 from threading import Thread
 
 import backoff
-import requests
+
 from ldclient.interfaces import UpdateProcessor
 from ldclient.sse_client import SSEClient
 from ldclient.util import _stream_headers, log
 
+# allows for up to 5 minutes to elapse without any data sent across the stream. The heartbeats sent as comments on the
+# stream will keep this from triggering
+stream_read_timeout = 5 * 60
+
 
 class StreamingUpdateProcessor(Thread, UpdateProcessor):
     def __init__(self, config, requester, store, ready):
@@ -30,9 +34,14 @@ def run(self):
     def _backoff_expo():
         return backoff.expo(max_value=30)
 
-    @backoff.on_exception(_backoff_expo, requests.exceptions.RequestException, max_tries=None, jitter=backoff.full_jitter)
+    @backoff.on_exception(_backoff_expo, BaseException, max_tries=None, jitter=backoff.full_jitter)
     def _connect(self):
-        messages = SSEClient(self._uri, verify=self._config.verify_ssl, headers=_stream_headers(self._config.sdk_key))
+        messages = SSEClient(
+            self._uri,
+            verify=self._config.verify_ssl,
+            headers=_stream_headers(self._config.sdk_key),
+            connect_timeout=self._config.connect_timeout,
+            read_timeout=stream_read_timeout)
         for msg in messages:
             if not self._running:
                 break