diff --git a/net/rds/send.c b/net/rds/send.c
index 15a1b97f13e7..8aad185e4b1a 100644
--- a/net/rds/send.c
+++ b/net/rds/send.c
@@ -114,8 +114,13 @@ static void release_in_xmit(struct rds_conn_path *cp)
 	 * hot path and finding waiters is very rare.  We don't want to walk
 	 * the system-wide hashed waitqueue buckets in the fast path only to
 	 * almost never find waiters.
+	 *
+	 * wq_has_sleeper() supplies the full barrier that orders the wait
+	 * queue read after the bit clear; clear_bit_unlock() alone is only
+	 * a release and would let this check read a stale empty queue,
+	 * losing the wake-up.
 	 */
-	if (waitqueue_active(&cp->cp_waitq))
+	if (wq_has_sleeper(&cp->cp_waitq))
 		wake_up_all(&cp->cp_waitq);
 }