diff --git a/daemon/stats/collector.go b/daemon/stats/collector.go
index caaf956a18..cd431515d2 100644
--- a/daemon/stats/collector.go
+++ b/daemon/stats/collector.go
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import (
 // Collector manages and provides container resource stats
 type Collector struct {
 	m          sync.Mutex
+	cond       *sync.Cond
 	supervisor supervisor
 	interval   time.Duration
 	publishers map[*container.Container]*pubsub.Publisher
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ func NewCollector(supervisor supervisor, interval time.Duration) *Collector {
 		publishers: make(map[*container.Container]*pubsub.Publisher),
 		bufReader:  bufio.NewReaderSize(nil, 128),
 	}
+	s.cond = sync.NewCond(&s.m)
 
 	platformNewStatsCollector(s)
 
@@ -46,13 +48,16 @@ type supervisor interface {
 // the event loop for collection on the specified interval returning
 // a channel for the subscriber to receive on.
 func (s *Collector) Collect(c *container.Container) chan interface{} {
-	s.m.Lock()
-	defer s.m.Unlock()
+	s.cond.L.Lock()
+	defer s.cond.L.Unlock()
+
 	publisher, exists := s.publishers[c]
 	if !exists {
 		publisher = pubsub.NewPublisher(100*time.Millisecond, 1024)
 		s.publishers[c] = publisher
 	}
+
+	s.cond.Broadcast()
 	return publisher.Subscribe()
 }
 
@@ -91,23 +96,21 @@ func (s *Collector) Run() {
 	var pairs []publishersPair
 
 	for {
-		// Put sleep at the start so that it will always be hit,
-		// preventing a tight loop if no stats are collected.
-		time.Sleep(s.interval)
+		s.cond.L.Lock()
+		for len(s.publishers) == 0 {
+			s.cond.Wait()
+		}
 
 		// it does not make sense in the first iteration,
 		// but saves allocations in further iterations
 		pairs = pairs[:0]
 
-		s.m.Lock()
 		for container, publisher := range s.publishers {
 			// copy pointers here to release the lock ASAP
 			pairs = append(pairs, publishersPair{container, publisher})
 		}
-		s.m.Unlock()
-		if len(pairs) == 0 {
-			continue
-		}
+
+		s.cond.L.Unlock()
 
 		onlineCPUs, err := s.getNumberOnlineCPUs()
 		if err != nil {
@@ -149,6 +152,8 @@ func (s *Collector) Run() {
 				})
 			}
 		}
+
+		time.Sleep(s.interval)
 	}
 }