diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
index 312c1ea9aafa..58e744b78c2c 100644
--- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
+++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
@@ -276,6 +276,7 @@ enum lru_list {
 enum vmscan_throttle_state {
 	VMSCAN_THROTTLE_WRITEBACK,
 	VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED,
+	VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS,
 	NR_VMSCAN_THROTTLE,
 };
 
diff --git a/include/trace/events/vmscan.h b/include/trace/events/vmscan.h
index d4905bd9e9c4..f25a6149d3ba 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/vmscan.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/vmscan.h
@@ -29,11 +29,13 @@
 
 #define _VMSCAN_THROTTLE_WRITEBACK	(1 << VMSCAN_THROTTLE_WRITEBACK)
 #define _VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED	(1 << VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED)
+#define _VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS	(1 << VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS)
 
 #define show_throttle_flags(flags)						\
 	(flags) ? __print_flags(flags, "|",					\
 		{_VMSCAN_THROTTLE_WRITEBACK,	"VMSCAN_THROTTLE_WRITEBACK"},	\
-		{_VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED,	"VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED"}	\
+		{_VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED,	"VMSCAN_THROTTLE_ISOLATED"},	\
+		{_VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS,	"VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS"}	\
 		) : "VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NONE"
 
 
diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index cf0321d7a784..965b3cf7046b 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -3487,19 +3487,11 @@ static int mem_cgroup_force_empty(struct mem_cgroup *memcg)
 
 	/* try to free all pages in this cgroup */
 	while (nr_retries && page_counter_read(&memcg->memory)) {
-		int progress;
-
 		if (signal_pending(current))
 			return -EINTR;
 
-		progress = try_to_free_mem_cgroup_pages(memcg, 1,
-							GFP_KERNEL, true);
-		if (!progress) {
+		if (!try_to_free_mem_cgroup_pages(memcg, 1, GFP_KERNEL, true))
 			nr_retries--;
-			/* maybe some writeback is necessary */
-			congestion_wait(BLK_RW_ASYNC, HZ/10);
-		}
-
 	}
 
 	return 0;
diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 7bfd62f81e16..7d3fe5938e3b 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -3322,6 +3322,33 @@ static inline bool compaction_ready(struct zone *zone, struct scan_control *sc)
 	return zone_watermark_ok_safe(zone, 0, watermark, sc->reclaim_idx);
 }
 
+static void consider_reclaim_throttle(pg_data_t *pgdat, struct scan_control *sc)
+{
+	/* If reclaim is making progress, wake any throttled tasks. */
+	if (sc->nr_reclaimed) {
+		wait_queue_head_t *wqh;
+
+		wqh = &pgdat->reclaim_wait[VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS];
+		if (waitqueue_active(wqh))
+			wake_up(wqh);
+
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Do not throttle kswapd on NOPROGRESS as it will throttle on
+	 * VMSCAN_THROTTLE_WRITEBACK if there are too many pages under
+	 * writeback and marked for immediate reclaim at the tail of
+	 * the LRU.
+	 */
+	if (current_is_kswapd())
+		return;
+
+	/* Throttle if making no progress at high prioities. */
+	if (sc->priority < DEF_PRIORITY - 2)
+		reclaim_throttle(pgdat, VMSCAN_THROTTLE_NOPROGRESS, HZ/10);
+}
+
 /*
  * This is the direct reclaim path, for page-allocating processes.  We only
  * try to reclaim pages from zones which will satisfy the caller's allocation
@@ -3406,6 +3433,7 @@ static void shrink_zones(struct zonelist *zonelist, struct scan_control *sc)
 			continue;
 		last_pgdat = zone->zone_pgdat;
 		shrink_node(zone->zone_pgdat, sc);
+		consider_reclaim_throttle(zone->zone_pgdat, sc);
 	}
 
 	/*