diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorker.java b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorker.java
index 32a8c948e0..81e14d53a5 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorker.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorker.java
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
 import io.grpc.Status.Code;
 import io.grpc.StatusRuntimeException;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.Deque;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -610,7 +609,7 @@ private void requestCallback(AppendRowsResponse response) {
     this.lock.lock();
     if (response.hasUpdatedSchema()) {
       this.updatedSchema =
-          TableSchemaAndTimestamp.create(Instant.now(), response.getUpdatedSchema());
+          TableSchemaAndTimestamp.create(System.nanoTime(), response.getUpdatedSchema());
     }
     try {
       // Had a successful connection with at least one result, reset retries.
@@ -824,12 +823,12 @@ public static void setOverwhelmedCountsThreshold(double newThreshold) {
   @AutoValue
   abstract static class TableSchemaAndTimestamp {
     // Shows the timestamp updated schema is reported from response
-    abstract Instant updateTimeStamp();
+    abstract long updateTimeStamp();
 
     // The updated schema returned from server.
     abstract TableSchema updatedSchema();
 
-    static TableSchemaAndTimestamp create(Instant updateTimeStamp, TableSchema updatedSchema) {
+    static TableSchemaAndTimestamp create(long updateTimeStamp, TableSchema updatedSchema) {
       return new AutoValue_ConnectionWorker_TableSchemaAndTimestamp(updateTimeStamp, updatedSchema);
     }
   }
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorkerPool.java b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorkerPool.java
index dea49b62db..e119f4c560 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorkerPool.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/ConnectionWorkerPool.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.MoreExecutors;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.HashSet;
@@ -268,7 +267,7 @@ public ApiFuture<AppendRowsResponse> append(
           if (response.getWriteStream() != "" && response.hasUpdatedSchema()) {
             tableNameToUpdatedSchema.put(
                 response.getWriteStream(),
-                TableSchemaAndTimestamp.create(Instant.now(), response.getUpdatedSchema()));
+                TableSchemaAndTimestamp.create(System.nanoTime(), response.getUpdatedSchema()));
           }
           return response;
         },
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriter.java b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriter.java
index 744839f3db..f9e6186edc 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriter.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriter.java
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@
 import io.grpc.Status.Code;
 import io.grpc.StatusRuntimeException;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.UUID;
@@ -88,7 +87,7 @@ public class StreamWriter implements AutoCloseable {
       new ConcurrentHashMap<>();
 
   /** Creation timestamp of this streamwriter */
-  private final Instant creationTimestamp;
+  private final long creationTimestamp;
 
   /** The maximum size of one request. Defined by the API. */
   public static long getApiMaxRequestBytes() {
@@ -260,7 +259,7 @@ private StreamWriter(Builder builder) throws IOException {
         client.close();
       }
     }
-    this.creationTimestamp = Instant.now();
+    this.creationTimestamp = System.nanoTime();
   }
 
   @VisibleForTesting
@@ -414,12 +413,12 @@ public synchronized TableSchema getUpdatedSchema() {
     if (tableSchemaAndTimestamp == null) {
       return null;
     }
-    return creationTimestamp.compareTo(tableSchemaAndTimestamp.updateTimeStamp()) < 0
+    return creationTimestamp < tableSchemaAndTimestamp.updateTimeStamp()
         ? tableSchemaAndTimestamp.updatedSchema()
         : null;
   }
 
-  Instant getCreationTimestamp() {
+  long getCreationTimestamp() {
     return creationTimestamp;
   }
 
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/JsonStreamWriterTest.java b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/JsonStreamWriterTest.java
index 6fc0936ee4..258a287a1c 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/JsonStreamWriterTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/JsonStreamWriterTest.java
@@ -530,8 +530,6 @@ public void run() throws Throwable {
   public void testSimpleSchemaUpdate() throws Exception {
     try (JsonStreamWriter writer =
         getTestJsonStreamWriterBuilder(TEST_STREAM, TABLE_SCHEMA).build()) {
-      // Sleep for a short period to make sure the creation timestamp is older.
-      Sleeper.DEFAULT.sleep(200);
       testBigQueryWrite.addResponse(
           AppendRowsResponse.newBuilder()
               .setAppendResult(
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriterTest.java b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriterTest.java
index e59b40e92b..134b438593 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriterTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquerystorage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/storage/v1/StreamWriterTest.java
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertThrows;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
-import com.google.api.client.util.Sleeper;
 import com.google.api.core.ApiFuture;
 import com.google.api.gax.batching.FlowController;
 import com.google.api.gax.core.NoCredentialsProvider;
@@ -310,8 +309,6 @@ private void testUpdatedSchemaFetch(boolean enableMultiplexing)
     AppendRowsResponse response =
         writer.append(createProtoRows(new String[] {String.valueOf(0)}), 0).get();
     assertEquals(writer.getUpdatedSchema(), UPDATED_TABLE_SCHEMA);
-    // Sleep for a short period to make sure the creation timestamp is older.
-    Sleeper.DEFAULT.sleep(200);
 
     // Create another writer, although it's the same stream name but the time stamp is newer, thus
     // the old updated schema won't get returned.