diff --git a/docs/management/advanced-options.asciidoc b/docs/management/advanced-options.asciidoc
index 43350d03e15e7..3f9f8319fc4cb 100644
--- a/docs/management/advanced-options.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/management/advanced-options.asciidoc
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ adapt to the interval between measurements. Keys are http://en.wikipedia.org/wik
 document.
 `discover:sampleSize`:: The number of rows to show in the Discover table.
 `discover:aggs:terms:size`:: Determines how many terms will be visualized when clicking the "visualize" button, in the field drop downs, in the discover sidebar. The default value is `20`.
+`discover:sort:defaultOrder`:: Controls the default sort direction for time based index patterns in the Discover app.
 `doc_table:highlight`:: Highlight results in Discover and Saved Searches Dashboard. Highlighting makes request slow when
 working on big documents. Set this property to `false` to disable highlighting.
 `courier:maxSegmentCount`:: Kibana splits requests in the Discover app into segments to limit the size of requests sent to
diff --git a/src/core_plugins/kibana/public/discover/controllers/discover.js b/src/core_plugins/kibana/public/discover/controllers/discover.js
index 4d06d1e81317b..b6a2ed65a8ebc 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/kibana/public/discover/controllers/discover.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/kibana/public/discover/controllers/discover.js
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ function discoverController(
   function getStateDefaults() {
     return {
       query: $scope.searchSource.get('query') || { query: '', language: config.get('search:queryLanguage') },
-      sort: getSort.array(savedSearch.sort, $scope.indexPattern),
+      sort: getSort.array(savedSearch.sort, $scope.indexPattern, config.get('discover:sort:defaultOrder')),
       columns: savedSearch.columns.length > 0 ? savedSearch.columns : config.get('defaultColumns').slice(),
       index: $scope.indexPattern.id,
       interval: 'auto',
diff --git a/src/core_plugins/kibana/ui_setting_defaults.js b/src/core_plugins/kibana/ui_setting_defaults.js
index 36a8b7f26e6d4..b798aaf101005 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/kibana/ui_setting_defaults.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/kibana/ui_setting_defaults.js
@@ -86,6 +86,12 @@ export function getUiSettingDefaults() {
       description: 'Determines how many terms will be visualized when clicking the "visualize" ' +
       'button, in the field drop downs, in the discover sidebar.'
     },
+    'discover:sort:defaultOrder': {
+      value: 'desc',
+      options: ['desc', 'asc'],
+      type: 'select',
+      description: 'Controls the default sort direction for time based index patterns in the Discover app.',
+    },
     'doc_table:highlight': {
       value: true,
       description: 'Highlight results in Discover and Saved Searches Dashboard.' +
diff --git a/src/ui/public/doc_table/lib/get_sort.js b/src/ui/public/doc_table/lib/get_sort.js
index 9d881abeba195..e4749d8439131 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/doc_table/lib/get_sort.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/doc_table/lib/get_sort.js
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import _ from 'lodash';
  * @param {object} indexPattern used for determining default sort
  * @returns {object} a sort object suitable for returning to elasticsearch
  */
-export function getSort(sort, indexPattern) {
+export function getSort(sort, indexPattern, defaultSortOrder = 'desc') {
   const sortObj = {};
   let field;
   let direction;
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ export function getSort(sort, indexPattern) {
     direction = sort[1];
   } else if (indexPattern.timeFieldName && isSortable(indexPattern.timeFieldName)) {
     field = indexPattern.timeFieldName;
-    direction = 'desc';
+    direction = defaultSortOrder;
   }
 
   if (field) {
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ export function getSort(sort, indexPattern) {
   return sortObj;
 }
 
-getSort.array = function (sort, indexPattern) {
-  return _(getSort(sort, indexPattern)).pairs().pop();
+getSort.array = function (sort, indexPattern, defaultSortOrder) {
+  return _(getSort(sort, indexPattern, defaultSortOrder)).pairs().pop();
 };