diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapper.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapper.java
index d2046c32f61..a195eab3fb3 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapper.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapper.java
@@ -235,12 +235,12 @@ public final class DateFieldMapper extends ParametrizedFieldMapper {
             return Arrays.asList(index, docValues, store, format, locale, nullValue, ignoreMalformed, boost, meta);
         }
 
-        private Long parseNullValue(DateFormatter formatter) {
+        private Long parseNullValue(DateFieldType fieldType) {
             if (nullValue.getValue() == null) {
                 return null;
             }
             try {
-                return formatter.parseMillis(nullValue.getValue());
+                return fieldType.parse(nullValue.getValue());
             }
             catch (Exception e) {
                 throw new MapperParsingException("Error parsing [null_value] on field [" + name() + "]: " + e.getMessage(), e);
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ public final class DateFieldMapper extends ParametrizedFieldMapper {
             DateFieldType ft = new DateFieldType(buildFullName(context), index.getValue(), docValues.getValue(),
                 buildFormatter(), resolution, meta.getValue());
             ft.setBoost(boost.getValue());
-            Long nullTimestamp = parseNullValue(ft.dateTimeFormatter);
+            Long nullTimestamp = parseNullValue(ft);
             return new DateFieldMapper(name, ft, multiFieldsBuilder.build(this, context),
                 copyTo.build(), nullTimestamp, resolution, indexCreatedVersion, this);
         }
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapperTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapperTests.java
index adcf0d0e0a8..20317a52c2a 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapperTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DateFieldMapperTests.java
@@ -193,6 +193,33 @@ public class DateFieldMapperTests extends MapperTestCase {
         assertFalse(dvField.fieldType().stored());
     }
 
+    public void testNanosNullValue() throws IOException {
+        DocumentMapper mapper = createDocumentMapper(fieldMapping(this::minimalMapping));
+
+        ParsedDocument doc = mapper.parse(source(b -> b.nullField("field")));
+        assertArrayEquals(new IndexableField[0], doc.rootDoc().getFields("field"));
+
+        MapperService mapperService = createMapperService(fieldMapping(b -> b
+            .field("type", "date_nanos")
+            .field("null_value", "2016-03-11")));
+
+        DateFieldMapper.DateFieldType ft = (DateFieldMapper.DateFieldType) mapperService.fieldType("field");
+        long expectedNullValue = ft.parse("2016-03-11");
+
+        doc = mapperService.documentMapper().parse(source(b -> b.nullField("field")));
+        IndexableField[] fields = doc.rootDoc().getFields("field");
+        assertEquals(2, fields.length);
+        IndexableField pointField = fields[0];
+        assertEquals(1, pointField.fieldType().pointIndexDimensionCount());
+        assertEquals(8, pointField.fieldType().pointNumBytes());
+        assertFalse(pointField.fieldType().stored());
+        assertEquals(expectedNullValue, pointField.numericValue().longValue());
+        IndexableField dvField = fields[1];
+        assertEquals(DocValuesType.SORTED_NUMERIC, dvField.fieldType().docValuesType());
+        assertEquals(expectedNullValue, dvField.numericValue().longValue());
+        assertFalse(dvField.fieldType().stored());
+    }
+
     public void testBadNullValue() {
 
         MapperParsingException e = expectThrows(MapperParsingException.class,