diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 005d18c..60c9d4a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -78,6 +78,66 @@ trio.run(main)
 A longer example is in `examples/server.py`. **See the note above about using
 SSL with the example client.**
 
+## Heartbeat recipe
+
+If you wish to keep a connection open for long periods of time but do not need
+to send messages frequently, then a heartbeat holds the connection open and also
+detects when the connection drops unexpectedly. The following recipe
+demonstrates how to implement a connection heartbeat using WebSocket's ping/pong
+feature.
+
+```python
+async def heartbeat(ws, timeout, interval):
+    '''
+    Send periodic pings on WebSocket ``ws``. Wait up to ``timeout`` seconds to
+    receive a pong before raising an exception. If a pong is received, then wait
+    ``interval`` seconds before sending the next ping.
+    '''
+    while True:
+        await ws.ping()
+        with trio.fail_after(timeout):
+            await ws.wait_pong()
+        await trio.sleep(interval)
+
+async def main():
+    async with open_websocket_url('ws://localhost/foo') as ws:
+        async with trio.open_nursery() as nursery:
+            nursery.start_soon(heartbeat, ws, 5, 1)
+            # Your application code goes here:
+            pass
+
+trio.run(main)
+```
+
+If the connection is dropped unexpectedly or takes too long to respond, then
+`heartbeat()` will raise an exception that will cancel the nursery. You may wish
+to implement additional logic to automatically reconnect.
+
+A heartbeat feature can be enabled in the example client with the
+``--heartbeat`` flag.
+
+**Note that the WebSocket RFC does not require a WebSocket to send a pong for each
+ping:**
+
+> If an endpoint receives a Ping frame and has not yet sent Pong frame(s) in
+> response to previous Ping frame(s), the endpoint MAY elect to send a Pong
+> frame for only the most recently processed Ping frame.
+
+Therefore, if you have multiple pings in flight at the same time, you may not
+get an equal number of pongs in response. The simplest strategy for dealing with
+this is to only have one ping in flight at a time, as seen in the example above.
+As an alternative, you can send a `bytes` payload with each ping. The server
+will return the payload with the pong:
+
+```python
+await ws.ping(b'my payload')
+pong == await ws.wait_pong()
+assert pong == b'my payload'
+```
+
+You may want to embed a nonce or counter in the payload in order to correlate
+pong events to the pings you have sent.
+
 ## Unit Tests
 
 Unit tests are written in the pytest style. You must install the development
diff --git a/examples/client.py b/examples/client.py
index a9a8ff5..ccd638e 100644
--- a/examples/client.py
+++ b/examples/client.py
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ def commands():
 def parse_args():
     ''' Parse command line arguments. '''
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Example trio-websocket client')
+    parser.add_argument('--heartbeat', action='store_true',
+        help='Create a heartbeat task')
     parser.add_argument('url', help='WebSocket URL to connect to')
     return parser.parse_args()
 
@@ -53,17 +55,19 @@ async def main(args):
     try:
         logging.debug('Connecting to WebSocket…')
         async with open_websocket_url(args.url, ssl_context) as conn:
-            await handle_connection(conn)
+            await handle_connection(conn, args.heartbeat)
     except OSError as ose:
         logging.error('Connection attempt failed: %s', ose)
         return False
 
 
-async def handle_connection(ws):
+async def handle_connection(ws, use_heartbeat):
     ''' Handle the connection. '''
     logging.debug('Connected!')
     try:
         async with trio.open_nursery() as nursery:
+            if use_heartbeat:
+                nursery.start_soon(heartbeat, ws, 1, 15)
             nursery.start_soon(get_commands, ws)
             nursery.start_soon(get_messages, ws)
     except ConnectionClosed as cc:
@@ -72,6 +76,21 @@ async def handle_connection(ws):
         print('Closed: {}/{} {}'.format(cc.reason.code, cc.reason.name, reason))
 
 
+async def heartbeat(ws, timeout, interval):
+    '''
+    Send periodic pings on WebSocket ``ws``.
+
+    After sending a ping, wait up to ``timeout`` seconds to receive a pong
+    before raising an exception. If a pong is received, then wait ``interval``
+    seconds before sending the next ping.
+    '''
+    while True:
+        await ws.ping(b'heartbeat')
+        with trio.fail_after(timeout):
+            await ws.wait_pong()
+        await trio.sleep(interval)
+
+
 async def get_commands(ws):
     ''' In a loop: get a command from the user and execute it. '''
     while True: