diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index c7af140f7d..56f74bcdac 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -244,6 +244,19 @@ dependencies = [
  "syn 2.0.52",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "async-timer"
+version = "1.0.0-beta.15"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1d420af8e042475e58a20d91af8eda7d6528989418c03f3f527e1c3415696f70"
+dependencies = [
+ "error-code",
+ "libc",
+ "tokio",
+ "wasm-bindgen",
+ "web-time",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "async-trait"
 version = "0.1.68"
@@ -1920,6 +1933,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "windows-sys 0.52.0",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "error-code"
+version = "3.3.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a5d9305ccc6942a704f4335694ecd3de2ea531b114ac2d51f5f843750787a92f"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "event-listener"
 version = "2.5.3"
@@ -3590,6 +3609,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "arc-swap",
  "async-compression",
  "async-stream",
+ "async-timer",
  "bit_field",
  "byteorder",
  "bytes",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index dbda930535..7797eb29ca 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ anyhow = { version = "1.0", features = ["backtrace"] }
 arc-swap = "1.6"
 async-compression = { version = "0.4.0", features = ["tokio", "gzip", "zstd"] }
 atomic-take = "1.1.0"
+async-timer = { version= "1.0.0-beta.15", features = ["tokio1"] }
 azure_core = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["enable_reqwest_rustls", "hmac_rust"] }
 azure_identity = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["enable_reqwest_rustls"] }
 azure_storage = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["enable_reqwest_rustls"] }
diff --git a/pageserver/Cargo.toml b/pageserver/Cargo.toml
index 143d8236df..ed2ee2f5c2 100644
--- a/pageserver/Cargo.toml
+++ b/pageserver/Cargo.toml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ anyhow.workspace = true
 arc-swap.workspace = true
 async-compression.workspace = true
 async-stream.workspace = true
+async-timer.workspace = true
 bit_field.workspace = true
 byteorder.workspace = true
 bytes.workspace = true
diff --git a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
index 3472dda378..3e01887355 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 use anyhow::{bail, Context};
 use async_compression::tokio::write::GzipEncoder;
+use async_timer::Timer;
 use bytes::Buf;
 use futures::FutureExt;
 use itertools::Itertools;
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ use pq_proto::FeStartupPacket;
 use pq_proto::{BeMessage, FeMessage, RowDescriptor};
 use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::io;
+use std::pin::Pin;
 use std::str;
 use std::str::FromStr;
 use std::sync::Arc;
@@ -316,6 +318,8 @@ struct PageServerHandler {
 
     /// See [`PageServerConf::server_side_batch_timeout`]
     server_side_batch_timeout: Option<Duration>,
+
+    server_side_batch_timer: Pin<Box<async_timer::timer::Platform>>,
 }
 
 struct Carry {
@@ -585,6 +589,7 @@ impl PageServerHandler {
             timeline_handles: TimelineHandles::new(tenant_manager),
             cancel,
             server_side_batch_timeout,
+            server_side_batch_timer: Box::pin(async_timer::new_timer(Duration::from_secs(999))), // reset each iteration
         }
     }
 
@@ -661,9 +666,8 @@ impl PageServerHandler {
                                         .msg
                                 ]));
                             } else {
-                                batching_deadline_storage = Some(Box::pin(async move {
-                                    tokio::time::sleep(batch_timeout).await;
-                                }));
+                                self.server_side_batch_timer.restart(batch_timeout);
+                                batching_deadline_storage = Some(&mut self.server_side_batch_timer);
                                 Either::Right(
                                     batching_deadline_storage.as_mut().expect("we just set it"),
                                 )