diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/HeapDefragement.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/HeapDefragement.java
index 1ae839a4d..c17b513b0 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/HeapDefragement.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/HeapDefragement.java
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+/* $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ */
+
 package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.servlet.setup;
 
 import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/NightlyDefragement.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/NightlyDefragement.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f23a6711b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/NightlyDefragement.java
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+/* $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ */
+
+package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.servlet.setup;
+
+import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
+import javax.servlet.ServletContextListener;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.joda.time.DateTime;
+
+/**
+ * This will attempt to run System.gc() once a night. 
+ * 
+ * @author bdc34
+ *
+ */
+public class NightlyDefragement implements ServletContextListener, Runnable {
+    
+    private static NightlyDefragement nightlyDefragement = null;
+    private static boolean stop = false;
+    private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(NightlyDefragement.class);
+            
+    protected DateTime lastRun;
+    
+    @Override
+    public void run() {
+        while( ! stop ){
+            DateTime now = new DateTime();
+            
+            if( now.hourOfDay().get() > 0 
+                 && now.hourOfDay().get() < 2 
+                 && lastRun.isBefore( now.minusHours(22) ) ){ 
+                
+                log.info("running defragement");
+                long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
+                System.gc();
+                log.info("Finished defragement, " + (start - System.currentTimeMillis()) + "msec");
+                lastRun = now;
+            }
+            
+            try{       
+                synchronized( nightlyDefragement ){
+                    this.wait(30*60*1000); //30 min;
+                }
+            }catch( InterruptedException ex){
+                log.debug("woken up");                
+            }
+        }  
+        log.info(" Stopping NightlyDefragement thread.");
+    }
+
+    
+    public void stopNicely(){
+        stop = true;
+        synchronized( nightlyDefragement ){
+            nightlyDefragement.notifyAll();
+        }
+    }
+    
+    
+    @Override
+    public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent arg0) {
+        lastRun = new DateTime().minusHours( 400 );
+        if( nightlyDefragement != null ){
+            log.warn("NightlyDefragement listener has already been setup. Check your web.xml for duplicate listeners.");            
+        }else{        
+            nightlyDefragement = this;
+            Thread thread = new Thread(this , "nightlyDefragementThread");                
+            thread.start();
+        }
+    }
+    
+    @Override
+    public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent arg0) {
+        nightlyDefragement.stopNicely();
+    }
+
+    
+}