diff --git a/internal/p2p/p2ptest/network.go b/internal/p2p/p2ptest/network.go
index 5c1b0a218..c040a08a8 100644
--- a/internal/p2p/p2ptest/network.go
+++ b/internal/p2p/p2ptest/network.go
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ func (n *Network) MakeNode(ctx context.Context, t *testing.T, opts NodeOptions)
 		func() *types.NodeInfo { return &nodeInfo },
 		transport,
 		ep,
-		p2p.RouterOptions{DialSleep: func(_ context.Context) {}},
+		p2p.RouterOptions{},
 	)
 
 	require.NoError(t, err)
diff --git a/internal/p2p/peermanager.go b/internal/p2p/peermanager.go
index b30c5dbfb..ac2e28225 100644
--- a/internal/p2p/peermanager.go
+++ b/internal/p2p/peermanager.go
@@ -144,6 +144,10 @@ type PeerManagerOptions struct {
 	// retry times, to avoid thundering herds. 0 disables jitter.
 	RetryTimeJitter time.Duration
 
+	// DisconnectCooldownPeriod is the amount of time after we
+	// disconnect from a peer before we'll consider dialing a new peer
+	DisconnectCooldownPeriod time.Duration
+
 	// PeerScores sets fixed scores for specific peers. It is mainly used
 	// for testing. A score of 0 is ignored.
 	PeerScores map[types.NodeID]PeerScore
@@ -549,6 +553,10 @@ func (m *PeerManager) TryDialNext() NodeAddress {
 			continue
 		}
 
+		if !peer.LastDisconnected.IsZero() && time.Since(peer.LastDisconnected) < m.options.DisconnectCooldownPeriod {
+			continue
+		}
+
 		for _, addressInfo := range peer.AddressInfo {
 			if time.Since(addressInfo.LastDialFailure) < m.retryDelay(addressInfo.DialFailures, peer.Persistent) {
 				continue
@@ -867,6 +875,22 @@ func (m *PeerManager) Disconnected(ctx context.Context, peerID types.NodeID) {
 	delete(m.evicting, peerID)
 	delete(m.ready, peerID)
 
+	if peer, ok := m.store.Get(peerID); ok {
+		peer.LastDisconnected = time.Now()
+		_ = m.store.Set(peer)
+		// launch a thread to ping the dialWaker when the
+		// disconnected peer can be dialed again.
+		go func() {
+			timer := time.NewTimer(m.options.DisconnectCooldownPeriod)
+			defer timer.Stop()
+			select {
+			case <-timer.C:
+				m.dialWaker.Wake()
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+			}
+		}()
+	}
+
 	if ready {
 		m.broadcast(ctx, PeerUpdate{
 			NodeID: peerID,
@@ -1447,9 +1471,10 @@ func (s *peerStore) Size() int {
 
 // peerInfo contains peer information stored in a peerStore.
 type peerInfo struct {
-	ID            types.NodeID
-	AddressInfo   map[NodeAddress]*peerAddressInfo
-	LastConnected time.Time
+	ID               types.NodeID
+	AddressInfo      map[NodeAddress]*peerAddressInfo
+	LastConnected    time.Time
+	LastDisconnected time.Time
 
 	// These fields are ephemeral, i.e. not persisted to the database.
 	Persistent bool
@@ -1489,8 +1514,8 @@ func peerInfoFromProto(msg *p2pproto.PeerInfo) (*peerInfo, error) {
 func (p *peerInfo) ToProto() *p2pproto.PeerInfo {
 	msg := &p2pproto.PeerInfo{
 		ID:            string(p.ID),
-		LastConnected: &p.LastConnected,
 		Inactive:      p.Inactive,
+		LastConnected: &p.LastConnected,
 	}
 	for _, addressInfo := range p.AddressInfo {
 		msg.AddressInfo = append(msg.AddressInfo, addressInfo.ToProto())
@@ -1498,6 +1523,7 @@ func (p *peerInfo) ToProto() *p2pproto.PeerInfo {
 	if msg.LastConnected.IsZero() {
 		msg.LastConnected = nil
 	}
+
 	return msg
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/p2p/router.go b/internal/p2p/router.go
index d5edd42be..8b7db9a03 100644
--- a/internal/p2p/router.go
+++ b/internal/p2p/router.go
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
-	"math/rand"
 	"net"
 	"runtime"
 	"sync"
@@ -62,13 +61,7 @@ type RouterOptions struct {
 	// return an error to reject the peer.
 	FilterPeerByID func(context.Context, types.NodeID) error
 
-	// DialSleep controls the amount of time that the router
-	// sleeps between dialing peers. If not set, a default value
-	// is used that sleeps for a (random) amount of time up to 3
-	// seconds between submitting each peer to be dialed.
-	DialSleep func(context.Context)
-
-	// NumConcurrentDials controls how many parallel go routines
+	// NumConcrruentDials controls how many parallel go routines
 	// are used to dial peers. This defaults to the value of
 	// runtime.NumCPU.
 	NumConcurrentDials func() int
@@ -439,33 +432,6 @@ func (r *Router) filterPeersID(ctx context.Context, id types.NodeID) error {
 	return r.options.FilterPeerByID(ctx, id)
 }
 
-func (r *Router) dialSleep(ctx context.Context) {
-	if r.options.DialSleep == nil {
-		// the connTracker (on the other side) only rate
-		// limits peers for dialing more than once every 10ms,
-		// so these numbers are safe.
-		const (
-			maxDialerInterval = 500 // ms
-			minDialerInterval = 100 // ms
-		)
-
-		// nolint:gosec // G404: Use of weak random number generator
-		dur := time.Duration(rand.Int63n(maxDialerInterval-minDialerInterval+1) + minDialerInterval)
-
-		timer := time.NewTimer(dur * time.Millisecond)
-		defer timer.Stop()
-
-		select {
-		case <-ctx.Done():
-		case <-timer.C:
-		}
-
-		return
-	}
-
-	r.options.DialSleep(ctx)
-}
-
 // acceptPeers accepts inbound connections from peers on the given transport,
 // and spawns goroutines that route messages to/from them.
 func (r *Router) acceptPeers(ctx context.Context, transport Transport) {
@@ -590,11 +556,6 @@ LOOP:
 
 		select {
 		case addresses <- address:
-			// this jitters the frequency that we call
-			// DialNext and prevents us from attempting to
-			// create connections too quickly.
-
-			r.dialSleep(ctx)
 			continue LOOP
 		case <-ctx.Done():
 			close(addresses)
diff --git a/internal/p2p/router_test.go b/internal/p2p/router_test.go
index 8a58146fd..92f56f768 100644
--- a/internal/p2p/router_test.go
+++ b/internal/p2p/router_test.go
@@ -715,7 +715,6 @@ func TestRouter_DialPeers_Parallel(t *testing.T) {
 		mockTransport,
 		nil,
 		p2p.RouterOptions{
-			DialSleep: func(_ context.Context) {},
 			NumConcurrentDials: func() int {
 				ncpu := runtime.NumCPU()
 				if ncpu <= 3 {
diff --git a/node/setup.go b/node/setup.go
index 345489f8d..df9d19195 100644
--- a/node/setup.go
+++ b/node/setup.go
@@ -235,17 +235,18 @@ func createPeerManager(
 	maxUpgradeConns := uint16(4)
 
 	options := p2p.PeerManagerOptions{
-		SelfAddress:            selfAddr,
-		MaxConnected:           maxConns,
-		MaxOutgoingConnections: maxOutgoingConns,
-		MaxConnectedUpgrade:    maxUpgradeConns,
-		MaxPeers:               maxUpgradeConns + 4*maxConns,
-		MinRetryTime:           250 * time.Millisecond,
-		MaxRetryTime:           30 * time.Minute,
-		MaxRetryTimePersistent: 5 * time.Minute,
-		RetryTimeJitter:        5 * time.Second,
-		PrivatePeers:           privatePeerIDs,
-		Metrics:                metrics,
+		SelfAddress:              selfAddr,
+		MaxConnected:             maxConns,
+		MaxOutgoingConnections:   maxOutgoingConns,
+		MaxConnectedUpgrade:      maxUpgradeConns,
+		DisconnectCooldownPeriod: 2 * time.Second,
+		MaxPeers:                 maxUpgradeConns + 4*maxConns,
+		MinRetryTime:             250 * time.Millisecond,
+		MaxRetryTime:             30 * time.Minute,
+		MaxRetryTimePersistent:   5 * time.Minute,
+		RetryTimeJitter:          5 * time.Second,
+		PrivatePeers:             privatePeerIDs,
+		Metrics:                  metrics,
 	}
 
 	peers := []p2p.NodeAddress{}