Initial request to server extremely slow after longer periods of inactivity

[opendaddy at hushmail.com]

Hi!

I'm running this Rails app on a DigitalOcean FreeBSD droplet. Lately I've been experiencing extremely slow initial requests after longer periods of inactivity. Subsequent requests are fine.

At first I thought it was my PostgreSQL database or the Rails app itself, but now I doubt that's the case as I just realized SSH connections made simultaneously with those initial requests are equally slow.

Has anybody ever encountered anything similar?

Thanks!

O.D.