diff --git a/src/node_messaging.cc b/src/node_messaging.cc
index 2dcfb4736d7c3f..19065fdb7d1be5 100644
--- a/src/node_messaging.cc
+++ b/src/node_messaging.cc
@@ -604,10 +604,11 @@ void MessagePort::OnMessage() {
   HandleScope handle_scope(env()->isolate());
   Local<Context> context = object(env()->isolate())->CreationContext();
 
-  ssize_t processing_limit;
+  size_t processing_limit;
   {
     Mutex::ScopedLock(data_->mutex_);
-    processing_limit = data_->incoming_messages_.size();
+    processing_limit = std::max(data_->incoming_messages_.size(),
+                                static_cast<size_t>(1000));
   }
 
   // data_ can only ever be modified by the owner thread, so no need to lock.
@@ -615,10 +616,14 @@ void MessagePort::OnMessage() {
   // messages, so we need to check that this handle still owns its `data_` field
   // on every iteration.
   while (data_) {
-    if (--processing_limit < 0) {
+    if (processing_limit-- == 0) {
       // Prevent event loop starvation by only processing those messages without
       // interruption that were already present when the OnMessage() call was
-      // first triggered.
+      // first triggered, but at least 1000 messages because otherwise the
+      // overhead of repeatedly triggering the uv_async_t instance becomes
+      // noticable, at least on Windows.
+      // (That might require more investigation by somebody more familiar with
+      // Windows.)
       TriggerAsync();
       return;
     }
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-worker-message-port-infinite-message-loop.js b/test/parallel/test-worker-message-port-infinite-message-loop.js
index 972f91ab1586d0..640b3383ca62c3 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-worker-message-port-infinite-message-loop.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-worker-message-port-infinite-message-loop.js
@@ -24,4 +24,6 @@ port1.on('message', () => {
 
 port2.postMessage(0);
 
+// This is part of the test -- the event loop should be available and not stall
+// out due to the recursive .postMessage() calls.
 setTimeout(common.mustCall(), 0);