diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index aa2eb4571a..c0e8fde052 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1608,3 +1608,8 @@ inherits = "release"
 opt-level = "z"
 lto = "fat"
 codegen-units = 1
+
+[profile.stress-test]
+inherits = "release"
+lto = "fat"
+panic = "abort"
diff --git a/examples/stress_tests/README.md b/examples/stress_tests/README.md
index 7bfef204a4..b64c46f1a0 100644
--- a/examples/stress_tests/README.md
+++ b/examples/stress_tests/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
 # Stress tests
 
-These examples are used to stress test Bevy's performance in various ways. These should be run with the --release argument to cargo or equivalent optimization, otherwise they will be very slow.
+These examples are used to stress test Bevy's performance in various ways. These
+should be run with the "stress-test" profile to accurately represent performance
+in production, otherwise they will run in cargo's default "dev" profile which is
+very slow.
+
+## Example Command
+
+```bash
+cargo run --profile stress-test --example <EXAMPLE>
+```