diff --git a/plugin/plugins/peerlog/peerlog.go b/plugin/plugins/peerlog/peerlog.go
index 59356317165e..20f8aecce08f 100644
--- a/plugin/plugins/peerlog/peerlog.go
+++ b/plugin/plugins/peerlog/peerlog.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package peerlog
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"sync/atomic"
+	"time"
 
 	core "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/core"
 	plugin "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/plugin"
@@ -18,6 +19,13 @@ var log = logging.Logger("plugin/peerlog")
 
 type eventType int
 
+var (
+	// size of the event queue buffer
+	eventQueueSize = 64 * 1024
+	// number of events to drop when busy.
+	busyDropAmount = eventQueueSize / 8
+)
+
 const (
 	eventConnect eventType = iota
 	eventIdentify
@@ -60,7 +68,7 @@ func (*peerLogPlugin) Version() string {
 
 // Init initializes plugin
 func (pl *peerLogPlugin) Init(*plugin.Environment) error {
-	pl.events = make(chan plEvent, 64*1024)
+	pl.events = make(chan plEvent, eventQueueSize)
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -68,11 +76,41 @@ func (pl *peerLogPlugin) collectEvents(node *core.IpfsNode) {
 	go func() {
 		ctx := node.Context()
 
+		busyCounter := 0
 		dlog := log.Desugar()
 		for {
+			// Deal with dropped events.
 			dropped := atomic.SwapUint64(&pl.droppedCount, 0)
 			if dropped > 0 {
+				busyCounter++
+
+				// sleep a bit to give the system a chance to catch up with logging.
+				select {
+				case <-time.After(time.Duration(busyCounter) * time.Second):
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					return
+				}
+
+				// drain 1/8th of the backlog backlog so we
+				// don't immediately run into this situation
+				// again.
+			loop:
+				for i := 0; i < busyDropAmount; i++ {
+					select {
+					case <-pl.events:
+						dropped++
+					default:
+						break loop
+					}
+				}
+
+				// Add in any events we've dropped in the mean-time.
+				dropped += atomic.SwapUint64(&pl.droppedCount, 0)
+
+				// Report that we've dropped events.
 				dlog.Error("dropped events", zap.Uint64("count", dropped))
+			} else {
+				busyCounter = 0
 			}
 
 			var e plEvent