diff --git a/Changes.md b/Changes.md
index 98085aaa..11bbc92f 100644
--- a/Changes.md
+++ b/Changes.md
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 
 [Sidekiq Changes](https://github.com/mperham/sidekiq/blob/main/Changes.md) | [Sidekiq Pro Changes](https://github.com/mperham/sidekiq/blob/main/Pro-Changes.md) | [Sidekiq Enterprise Changes](https://github.com/mperham/sidekiq/blob/main/Ent-Changes.md)
 
+HEAD
+----------
+
+- Further optimizations for scheduled polling [#5513]
+
 6.5.6
 ----------
 
diff --git a/lib/sidekiq/api.rb b/lib/sidekiq/api.rb
index 4c65f4e2..2179ee37 100644
--- a/lib/sidekiq/api.rb
+++ b/lib/sidekiq/api.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,17 @@ require "base64"
 require "sidekiq/metrics/deploy"
 require "sidekiq/metrics/query"
 
+#
+# Sidekiq's Data API provides a Ruby object model on top
+# of Sidekiq's runtime data in Redis. This API should never
+# be used within application code for business logic.
+#
+# The Sidekiq server process never uses this API: all data
+# manipulation is done directly for performance reasons to
+# ensure we are using Redis as efficiently as possible at
+# every callsite.
+#
+
 module Sidekiq
   # Retrieve runtime statistics from Redis regarding
   # this Sidekiq cluster.
@@ -829,10 +840,12 @@ module Sidekiq
     # :nodoc:
     # @api private
     def cleanup
+      # dont run cleanup more than once per minute
       return 0 unless Sidekiq.redis { |conn| conn.set("process_cleanup", "1", nx: true, ex: 60) }
+
       count = 0
       Sidekiq.redis do |conn|
-        procs = conn.sscan("processes").to_a.sort
+        procs = conn.sscan("processes").to_a
         heartbeats = conn.pipelined { |pipeline|
           procs.each do |key|
             pipeline.hget(key, "info")
diff --git a/lib/sidekiq/scheduled.rb b/lib/sidekiq/scheduled.rb
index 44be3dd4..1fe9af33 100644
--- a/lib/sidekiq/scheduled.rb
+++ b/lib/sidekiq/scheduled.rb
@@ -146,13 +146,16 @@ module Sidekiq
         # As we run more processes, the scheduling interval average will approach an even spread
         # between 0 and poll interval so we don't need this artifical boost.
         #
-        if process_count < 10
+        count = process_count
+        interval = poll_interval_average(count)
+
+        if count < 10
           # For small clusters, calculate a random interval that is ±50% the desired average.
-          poll_interval_average * rand + poll_interval_average.to_f / 2
+          interval * rand + interval.to_f / 2
         else
           # With 10+ processes, we should have enough randomness to get decent polling
           # across the entire timespan
-          poll_interval_average * rand
+          interval * rand
         end
       end
 
@@ -169,14 +172,14 @@ module Sidekiq
       # the same time: the thundering herd problem.
       #
       # We only do this if poll_interval_average is unset (the default).
-      def poll_interval_average
-        @config[:poll_interval_average] ||= scaled_poll_interval
+      def poll_interval_average(count)
+        @config[:poll_interval_average] || scaled_poll_interval(count)
       end
 
       # Calculates an average poll interval based on the number of known Sidekiq processes.
       # This minimizes a single point of failure by dispersing check-ins but without taxing
       # Redis if you run many Sidekiq processes.
-      def scaled_poll_interval
+      def scaled_poll_interval(process_count)
         process_count * @config[:average_scheduled_poll_interval]
       end
 
@@ -186,9 +189,35 @@ module Sidekiq
         pcount
       end
 
+      # A copy of Sidekiq::ProcessSet#cleanup because server
+      # should never depend on sidekiq/api.
+      def cleanup
+        # dont run cleanup more than once per minute
+        return 0 unless redis { |conn| conn.set("process_cleanup", "1", nx: true, ex: 60) }
+
+        count = 0
+        redis do |conn|
+          procs = conn.sscan("processes").to_a
+          heartbeats = conn.pipelined { |pipeline|
+            procs.each do |key|
+              pipeline.hget(key, "info")
+            end
+          }
+
+          # the hash named key has an expiry of 60 seconds.
+          # if it's not found, that means the process has not reported
+          # in to Redis and probably died.
+          to_prune = procs.select.with_index { |proc, i|
+            heartbeats[i].nil?
+          }
+          count = conn.srem("processes", to_prune) unless to_prune.empty?
+        end
+        count
+      end
+
       def initial_wait
-        # Have all processes sleep between 5-15 seconds.  10 seconds
-        # to give time for the heartbeat to register (if the poll interval is going to be calculated by the number
+        # Have all processes sleep between 5-15 seconds. 10 seconds to give time for
+        # the heartbeat to register (if the poll interval is going to be calculated by the number
         # of workers), and 5 random seconds to ensure they don't all hit Redis at the same time.
         total = 0
         total += INITIAL_WAIT unless @config[:poll_interval_average]
@@ -196,6 +225,11 @@ module Sidekiq
 
         @sleeper.pop(total)
       rescue Timeout::Error
+      ensure
+        # periodically clean out the `processes` set in Redis which can collect
+        # references to dead processes over time. The process count affects how
+        # often we scan for scheduled jobs.
+        cleanup
       end
     end
   end
diff --git a/lib/sidekiq/web/helpers.rb b/lib/sidekiq/web/helpers.rb
index fa8678b0..452e915e 100644
--- a/lib/sidekiq/web/helpers.rb
+++ b/lib/sidekiq/web/helpers.rb
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ module Sidekiq
       @sorted_processes ||= begin
         return processes unless processes.all? { |p| p["hostname"] }
 
-        split_characters = /[._-]/
+        split_characters = /[._-]+/
 
         padding = processes.flat_map { |p| p["hostname"].split(split_characters) }.map(&:size).max
 
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ module Sidekiq
     end
 
     def redis_url
-      Sidekiq.default_configuration.redis do |conn|
+      Sidekiq.redis do |conn|
         conn._config.server_url
       end
     end
diff --git a/test/scheduled.rb b/test/scheduled.rb
index 6418950f..de339a15 100644
--- a/test/scheduled.rb
+++ b/test/scheduled.rb
@@ -125,16 +125,35 @@ describe Sidekiq::Scheduled do
       end
     end
 
-    it "calculates an average poll interval based on the number of known Sidekiq processes" do
+    it "generates random intervals based on the number of known Sidekiq processes" do
       with_sidekiq_option(:average_scheduled_poll_interval, 10) do
-        3.times do |i|
+        intervals_count = 500
+
+        # Start with 10 processes
+        10.times do |i|
           @config.redis do |conn|
             conn.sadd("processes", ["process-#{i}"])
-            conn.hset("process-#{i}", "info", "")
           end
         end
 
-        assert_equal 30, @poller.send(:scaled_poll_interval)
+        intervals = Array.new(intervals_count) { @poller.send(:random_poll_interval) }
+        assert intervals.all? { |x| x.between?(0, 100) }
+
+        # Reduce to 3 processes
+        (3..9).each do |i|
+          @config.redis do |conn|
+            conn.srem("processes", ["process-#{i}"])
+          end
+        end
+
+        intervals = Array.new(intervals_count) { @poller.send(:random_poll_interval) }
+        assert intervals.all? { |x| x.between?(15, 45) }
+      end
+    end
+
+    it "calculates an average poll interval based on a given number of processes" do
+      with_sidekiq_option(:average_scheduled_poll_interval, 10) do
+        assert_equal 30, @poller.send(:scaled_poll_interval, 3)
       end
     end
   end
diff --git a/test/web_helpers.rb b/test/web_helpers.rb
index d271212a..0c498da4 100644
--- a/test/web_helpers.rb
+++ b/test/web_helpers.rb
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ describe "Web helpers" do
   end
 
   it "sorts processes using the natural sort order" do
-    ["a.10.2", "a.2", "busybee-10_1", "a.23", "a.10.1", "a.1", "192.168.0.10", "192.168.0.2", "2.1.1.1", "busybee-2_34"].each do |hostname|
+    ["a.10.2", "a.2", "busybee--10_1", "a.23", "a.10.1", "a.1", "192.168.0.10", "192.168.0.2", "2.1.1.1", "busybee-2__34"].each do |hostname|
       pdata = {"hostname" => hostname, "pid" => "123", "started_at" => Time.now.to_i}
       key = "#{hostname}:123"
 
@@ -161,6 +161,6 @@ describe "Web helpers" do
     obj = Helpers.new
 
     assert obj.sorted_processes.all? { |process| assert_instance_of Sidekiq::Process, process }
-    assert_equal ["2.1.1.1", "192.168.0.2", "192.168.0.10", "a.1", "a.2", "a.10.1", "a.10.2", "a.23", "busybee-2_34", "busybee-10_1"], obj.sorted_processes.map { |process| process["hostname"] }
+    assert_equal ["2.1.1.1", "192.168.0.2", "192.168.0.10", "a.1", "a.2", "a.10.1", "a.10.2", "a.23", "busybee-2__34", "busybee--10_1"], obj.sorted_processes.map { |process| process["hostname"] }
   end
 end