diff --git a/lisp/ChangeLog b/lisp/ChangeLog
index a52ffebadfa..c81c9cb895c 100644
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 2006-09-09  Micha,Ak(Bl Cadilhac  <michael.cadilhac@lrde.org>
 
+	* play/life.el (life-display-generation): Test for input manually if
+	`sleeptime' is negative or null.
+
 	* lpr.el (lpr-page-header-switches): Page title switch is one of them.
 	(print-region-1): Substitute `%s' with the page title.
 
diff --git a/lisp/play/life.el b/lisp/play/life.el
index 263c4450c9d..a034c387400 100644
--- a/lisp/play/life.el
+++ b/lisp/play/life.el
@@ -269,7 +269,8 @@ generations (this defaults to 1)."
   (recenter 0)
 
   ;; Redisplay; if the user has hit a key, exit the loop.
-  (or (eq t (sit-for sleeptime))
+  (or (and (sit-for sleeptime) (< 0 sleeptime))
+      (not (input-pending-p))
       (throw 'life-exit nil)))
 
 (defun life-extinct-quit ()