diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
index 352239c411a4..79ce22de4409 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -4199,7 +4199,8 @@ static inline void sched_submit_work(struct task_struct *tsk)
 	 * it wants to wake up a task to maintain concurrency.
 	 * As this function is called inside the schedule() context,
 	 * we disable preemption to avoid it calling schedule() again
-	 * in the possible wakeup of a kworker.
+	 * in the possible wakeup of a kworker and because wq_worker_sleeping()
+	 * requires it.
 	 */
 	if (tsk->flags & PF_WQ_WORKER) {
 		preempt_disable();
diff --git a/kernel/workqueue.c b/kernel/workqueue.c
index 1a0c224af6fb..4aa268582a22 100644
--- a/kernel/workqueue.c
+++ b/kernel/workqueue.c
@@ -864,7 +864,8 @@ void wq_worker_running(struct task_struct *task)
  * @task: task going to sleep
  *
  * This function is called from schedule() when a busy worker is
- * going to sleep.
+ * going to sleep. Preemption needs to be disabled to protect ->sleeping
+ * assignment.
  */
 void wq_worker_sleeping(struct task_struct *task)
 {
@@ -881,7 +882,8 @@ void wq_worker_sleeping(struct task_struct *task)
 
 	pool = worker->pool;
 
-	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(worker->sleeping))
+	/* Return if preempted before wq_worker_running() was reached */
+	if (worker->sleeping)
 		return;
 
 	worker->sleeping = 1;