diff --git a/esphome/core/application.cpp b/esphome/core/application.cpp
index 7570401d13c..556485d56ce 100644
--- a/esphome/core/application.cpp
+++ b/esphome/core/application.cpp
@@ -668,16 +668,21 @@ void Application::yield_with_select_(uint32_t delay_ms) {
     return;
   }
 
+  // Check if any socket already has pending data before sleeping.
+  // If a socket still has unread data (rcvevent > 0) but the task notification was already
+  // consumed, ulTaskNotifyTake would block until timeout — adding up to delay_ms latency.
+  // This scan preserves select() semantics: return immediately when any fd is ready.
+  for (struct lwip_sock *sock : this->monitored_sockets_) {
+    if (esphome_lwip_socket_has_data(sock)) {
+      yield();
+      return;
+    }
+  }
+
   // Sleep with instant wake via FreeRTOS task notification.
   // Woken by: callback wrapper (socket data arrives), wake_loop_threadsafe() (other tasks), or timeout.
   // Without USE_WAKE_LOOP_THREADSAFE, only hooked socket callbacks wake the task —
   // background tasks won't call wake, so this degrades to a pure timeout (same as old select path).
-  //
-  // No pre-sleep socket scan needed: xTaskNotifyGive from the lwip callback persists
-  // until consumed by ulTaskNotifyTake, so notifications received while the task is
-  // running are not lost. The only unhandled case is intentionally undrained sockets
-  // (e.g., API's MAX_MESSAGES_PER_LOOP throttle), where the delay_ms latency before
-  // re-checking is the desired behavior — waking immediately would defeat the throttle.
   ulTaskNotifyTake(pdTRUE, pdMS_TO_TICKS(delay_ms));
 
 #elif defined(USE_SOCKET_SELECT_SUPPORT)