diff --git a/beat/web/settings/settings.py b/beat/web/settings/settings.py
index 71bd96920153dc06ce3505393c89f997bf087283..536418962d91ecf1f2d467673ae0c9a75318df3f 100644
--- a/beat/web/settings/settings.py
+++ b/beat/web/settings/settings.py
@@ -219,6 +219,12 @@ SCHEDULING_INTERVAL  = 5 #seconds
 # a particular worker will run to verify jobs are not scheduled to itself
 WORKER_INTERVAL      = 5 #seconds
 
+# This is the frequency in seconds, in which the worker will update information
+# about its internal state to the database. It is typically larger (much
+# larger) than the WORKER_INTERVAL to avoid overloading the database with
+# unnecessary requests.
+WORKER_STATE_UPDATE  = 60 #seconds
+
 # The maximum index split errors control the maximum number of times we can
 # incur in an index split error condition without cancelling the block
 # execution altogether. This number, multiplied by the scheduling interval,