diff --git a/src/ExtEventLoop.php b/src/ExtEventLoop.php
index b1cb3e74..8eee66ad 100644
--- a/src/ExtEventLoop.php
+++ b/src/ExtEventLoop.php
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ class ExtEventLoop implements LoopInterface
     private $streamCallback;
     private $streamEvents = [];
     private $streamFlags = [];
+    private $streamRefs = [];
     private $readListeners = [];
     private $writeListeners = [];
     private $running;
@@ -110,7 +111,8 @@ private function removeStream($stream)
                 $this->streamFlags[$key],
                 $this->streamEvents[$key],
                 $this->readListeners[$key],
-                $this->writeListeners[$key]
+                $this->writeListeners[$key],
+                $this->streamRefs[$key]
             );
         }
     }
@@ -224,6 +226,12 @@ private function subscribeStreamEvent($stream, $flag)
 
             $this->streamEvents[$key] = $event;
             $this->streamFlags[$key] = $flag;
+
+            // ext-event does not increase refcount on stream resources for PHP 7+
+            // manually keep track of stream resource to prevent premature garbage collection
+            if (PHP_VERSION_ID >= 70000) {
+                $this->streamRefs[$key] = $stream;
+            }
         }
 
         $event->add();
diff --git a/tests/AbstractLoopTest.php b/tests/AbstractLoopTest.php
index a256c82a..bee7f495 100644
--- a/tests/AbstractLoopTest.php
+++ b/tests/AbstractLoopTest.php
@@ -61,6 +61,39 @@ public function testAddReadStreamIgnoresSecondCallable()
         $this->tickLoop($this->loop);
     }
 
+    public function testAddReadStreamReceivesDataFromStreamReference()
+    {
+        $this->received = '';
+        $this->subAddReadStreamReceivesDataFromStreamReference();
+        $this->assertEquals('', $this->received);
+
+        $this->assertRunFasterThan($this->tickTimeout * 2);
+        $this->assertEquals('[hello]X', $this->received);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Telper for above test. This happens in another helper method to verify
+     * the loop keep track of assigned stream resources (refcount).
+     */
+    private function subAddReadStreamReceivesDataFromStreamReference()
+    {
+        list ($input, $output) = $this->createSocketPair();
+
+        fwrite($input, 'hello');
+        fclose($input);
+
+        $this->loop->addReadStream($output, function ($output) {
+            $chunk = fread($output, 1024);
+            if ($chunk === '') {
+                $this->received .= 'X';
+                $this->loop->removeReadStream($output);
+                fclose($output);
+            } else {
+                $this->received .= '[' . $chunk . ']';
+            }
+        });
+    }
+
     public function testAddWriteStream()
     {
         list ($input) = $this->createSocketPair();