diff --git a/clients/roscpp/include/ros/timer_manager.h b/clients/roscpp/include/ros/timer_manager.h
index ecf7088bdd..e574d0ea6c 100644
--- a/clients/roscpp/include/ros/timer_manager.h
+++ b/clients/roscpp/include/ros/timer_manager.h
@@ -46,22 +46,6 @@
 namespace ros
 {
 
-namespace {
-  template<class T>
-  class TimerManagerTraits
-  {
-  public:
-    typedef boost::chrono::system_clock::time_point time_point;
-  };
-
-  template<>
-  class TimerManagerTraits<SteadyTime>
-  {
-  public:
-    typedef boost::chrono::steady_clock::time_point time_point;
-  };
-}
-
 template<class T, class D, class E>
 class TimerManager
 {
@@ -592,8 +576,8 @@ void TimerManager<T, D, E>::threadFunc()
       {
         // On system time we can simply sleep for the rest of the wait time, since anything else requiring processing will
         // signal the condition variable
-        typename TimerManagerTraits<T>::time_point end_tp(boost::chrono::nanoseconds(sleep_end.toNSec()));
-        timers_cond_.wait_until(lock, end_tp);
+        int64_t remaining_time = std::max<int64_t>((sleep_end - current).toSec() * 1000.0f, 1);
+        timers_cond_.wait_for(lock, boost::chrono::milliseconds(remaining_time));
       }
     }