diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -1125,6 +1125,7 @@
 static void ThreadImport(const Config &config,
                          std::vector<fs::path> vImportFiles) {
     RenameThread("bitcoin-loadblk");
+    ScheduleBatchPriority();
 
     {
         CImportingNow imp;
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -364,4 +364,13 @@
 
 } // namespace util
 
+/**
+ * On platforms that support it, tell the kernel the calling thread is
+ * CPU-intensive and non-interactive. See SCHED_BATCH in sched(7) for details.
+ *
+ * @return The return value of sched_setschedule(), or 1 on systems without
+ * sched_setchedule().
+ */
+int ScheduleBatchPriority();
+
 #endif // BITCOIN_UTIL_H
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <fcntl.h>
+#include <sched.h>
 #include <sys/resource.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 
@@ -1311,3 +1312,16 @@
 fs::path AbsPathForConfigVal(const fs::path &path, bool net_specific) {
     return fs::absolute(path, GetDataDir(net_specific));
 }
+
+int ScheduleBatchPriority() {
+#ifdef SCHED_BATCH
+    const static sched_param param{.sched_priority = 0};
+    if (int ret = pthread_setschedparam(0, SCHED_BATCH, &param)) {
+        LogPrintf("Failed to pthread_setschedparam: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+        return ret;
+    }
+    return 0;
+#else
+    return 1;
+#endif
+}