diff --git a/tasks/container/cockpit-tasks b/tasks/container/cockpit-tasks
index 4ff80fe9..af3c22db 100755
--- a/tasks/container/cockpit-tasks
+++ b/tasks/container/cockpit-tasks
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@ function update_bots() {
     fi
 }
 
-# wait between 1 and 10 minutes, but not in an interactive terminal (annoying for debugging)
+# wait between 1 and 10 minutes, with an override to speed up tests
 function slumber() {
-    if [ -t 0 ]; then
-        sleep 10
+    if [ -n "${SLUMBER:-}" ]; then
+        sleep "$SLUMBER"
     else
         sleep $(shuf -i ${1:-60-600} -n 1)
     fi
diff --git a/tasks/run-local.sh b/tasks/run-local.sh
index 7b3c7bb2..9d380610 100755
--- a/tasks/run-local.sh
+++ b/tasks/run-local.sh
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ test_pr() {
 
     # run the main loop in the background; we could do this with a single run-queue invocation,
     # but we want to test the cockpit-tasks script
-    podman exec -i cockpituous-tasks cockpit-tasks &
+    podman exec -i --env=SLUMBER=5 cockpituous-tasks cockpit-tasks &
     TASKS_PID=$!
 
     podman exec -i cockpituous-tasks sh -euxc "