diff --git a/libs/pbd/pbd/abstract_ui.cc b/libs/pbd/pbd/abstract_ui.cc
index 515cdfa851..b148810de5 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/pbd/abstract_ui.cc
+++ b/libs/pbd/pbd/abstract_ui.cc
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ AbstractUI<RequestObject>::handle_ui_requests ()
 {
 	RequestBufferMapIterator i;
 	RequestBufferVector vec;
+	int cnt = 0;
 
 	/* check all registered per-thread buffers first */
 	Glib::Threads::RWLock::ReaderLock rbml (request_buffer_map_lock);
@@ -241,6 +242,8 @@ AbstractUI<RequestObject>::handle_ui_requests ()
 	if (trash.size() > 0) {
 		DEBUG_TRACE (PBD::DEBUG::AbstractUI, string_compose ("%1 items in trash: %2\n", event_loop_name(), trash.size()));
 	}
+
+	bool buf_found = false;
 #endif
 
 	DEBUG_TRACE (PBD::DEBUG::AbstractUI, string_compose ("%1 check %2 request buffers for requests\n", event_loop_name(), request_buffers.size()));
@@ -267,6 +270,9 @@ AbstractUI<RequestObject>::handle_ui_requests ()
 			if (vec.len[0] == 0) {
 				break;
 			} else {
+#ifndef NDEBUG
+				buf_found = true;
+#endif
 				if (vec.buf[0]->invalidation && !vec.buf[0]->invalidation->valid ()) {
 					DEBUG_TRACE (PBD::DEBUG::AbstractUI, string_compose ("%1: skipping invalidated request\n", event_loop_name()));
 					rbml.release ();
@@ -277,6 +283,7 @@ AbstractUI<RequestObject>::handle_ui_requests ()
 
 					DEBUG_TRACE (PBD::DEBUG::AbstractUI, string_compose ("%1: valid request, calling ::do_request()\n", event_loop_name()));
 					do_request (vec.buf[0]);
+					cnt++;
 				}
 
 				/* if the request was CallSlot, then we need to ensure that we reset the functor in the request, in case it
@@ -301,6 +308,12 @@ AbstractUI<RequestObject>::handle_ui_requests ()
 		}
 	}
 
+#ifndef NDEBUG
+	if (!buf_found) {
+		std::cerr << event_loop_name() << " woken, but not request buffers have any requests " << std::endl;
+	}
+#endif
+
 	assert (rbml.locked ());
 	for (i = request_buffers.begin(); i != request_buffers.end(); ) {
 		if ((*i).second->dead) {
@@ -370,6 +383,7 @@ AbstractUI<RequestObject>::handle_ui_requests ()
 		 */
 
 		do_request (req);
+		cnt++;
 
 		DEBUG_TRACE (PBD::DEBUG::AbstractUI, string_compose ("%1/%2 delete heap request type %3\n", event_loop_name(), pthread_name(), req->type));
 		delete req;