diff --git a/config/webpack.config.js b/config/webpack.config.js
index a50402a..1fc02d5 100644
--- a/config/webpack.config.js
+++ b/config/webpack.config.js
@@ -41,7 +41,14 @@ module.exports = {
     // serve index.html in place of 404 responses to allow HTML5 history
     historyApiFallback: true,
     port: PORT,
-    host: HOST
+    host: HOST,
+    watchOptions: {
+      // Disabled polling by default as it causes lots of CPU usage and hence drains laptop batteries. To enable polling add WEBPACK_DEV_SERVER_POLLING to your environment
+      // See <https://webpack.js.org/configuration/watch/#watchoptions-poll> for details
+      poll: (!!process.env.WEBPACK_DEV_SERVER_POLLING ? true : false),
+      watch: false,
+      ignored: /node_modules/
+    }
   },
   plugins: [
     new webpack.NoErrorsPlugin(),
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 260623b..5b1beb4 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
     "build": "webpack --config config/webpack.production.config.js --progress --profile --colors",
     "test": "wdio config/wdio.conf.js",
     "test-watch": "wdio config/wdio.conf.js --watch",
-    "start": "webpack-dev-server --progress --profile --colors --watch-poll --config config/webpack.config.js",
+    "start": "webpack-dev-server --progress --profile --colors --config config/webpack.config.js",
     "lint": "eslint --ext js --ext jsx {src,test}",
     "lint-styles": "stylelint 'src/styles/*.scss'"
   },