diff --git a/systemtest/src/main/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/utils/kafkaUtils/KafkaTopicUtils.java b/systemtest/src/main/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/utils/kafkaUtils/KafkaTopicUtils.java
index 3c29bf684b3..e767a1063f1 100644
--- a/systemtest/src/main/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/utils/kafkaUtils/KafkaTopicUtils.java
+++ b/systemtest/src/main/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/utils/kafkaUtils/KafkaTopicUtils.java
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Random;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport;
 import java.util.function.Predicate;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
@@ -278,11 +280,7 @@ public static void verifyUnchangedTopicAbsence(String namespaceName, String quer
 
         while (System.currentTimeMillis() < endTime) {
             assertThat(KafkaCmdClient.listTopicsUsingPodCli(namespaceName, queryingPodName, KafkaResources.plainBootstrapAddress(clusterName)), not(hasItems(absentTopicName)));
-            try {
-                Thread.sleep(TestConstants.POLL_INTERVAL_FOR_RESOURCE_READINESS);
-            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-                e.printStackTrace();
-            }
+            LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toNanos(TestConstants.POLL_INTERVAL_FOR_RESOURCE_READINESS));
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/metrics/MetricsST.java b/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/metrics/MetricsST.java
index 0743ea28be2..ccef60e5fcf 100644
--- a/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/metrics/MetricsST.java
+++ b/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/metrics/MetricsST.java
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport;
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
@@ -763,7 +765,7 @@ void setupEnvironment() throws Exception {
         // wait some time for metrics to be stable - at least reconciliation interval + 10s
         LOGGER.info("Sleeping for {} to give operators and operands some time to stable the metrics values before collecting",
                 TestConstants.SAFETY_RECONCILIATION_INTERVAL);
-        Thread.sleep(TestConstants.SAFETY_RECONCILIATION_INTERVAL);
+        LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toNanos(TestConstants.SAFETY_RECONCILIATION_INTERVAL));
 
         kafkaCollector = new MetricsCollector.Builder()
             .withScraperPodName(scraperPodName)
diff --git a/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/operators/topic/TopicST.java b/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/operators/topic/TopicST.java
index fcca30818f2..c157608c679 100644
--- a/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/operators/topic/TopicST.java
+++ b/systemtest/src/test/java/io/strimzi/systemtest/operators/topic/TopicST.java
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@
 
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport;
 
 import static io.strimzi.systemtest.TestConstants.REGRESSION;
 import static io.strimzi.systemtest.enums.ConditionStatus.False;
@@ -124,7 +126,7 @@ void testCreateDeleteCreate() throws InterruptedException {
         assertThat(adminClient.listTopics(), containsString(testStorage.getTopicName()));
 
         for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
-            Thread.sleep(2_000);
+            LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.SECONDS.toNanos(2));
 
             LOGGER.info("Iteration {}: Deleting {}", i, testStorage.getTopicName());
             cmdKubeClient(Environment.TEST_SUITE_NAMESPACE).deleteByName(KafkaTopic.RESOURCE_KIND, testStorage.getTopicName());
@@ -132,8 +134,7 @@ void testCreateDeleteCreate() throws InterruptedException {
 
             assertThat(adminClient.listTopics(), not(containsString(testStorage.getTopicName())));
 
-            Thread.sleep(2_000);
-            long t0 = System.currentTimeMillis();
+            LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.SECONDS.toNanos(2));
 
             LOGGER.info("Iteration {}: Recreating {}", i, testStorage.getTopicName());
             resourceManager.createResourceWithWait(KafkaTopicTemplates.topic(Environment.TEST_SUITE_NAMESPACE, testStorage.getTopicName(), sharedTestStorage.getClusterName())
@@ -297,7 +298,7 @@ void testCreateTopicAfterUnsupportedOperation() {
      *  - kafkatopic-not-ready
      */
     @IsolatedTest
-    void testKafkaTopicDifferentStatesInUTOMode() throws InterruptedException {
+    void testKafkaTopicDifferentStatesInUTOMode() {
         final TestStorage testStorage = new TestStorage(ResourceManager.getTestContext());
         int initialReplicas = 1;
         int initialPartitions = 5;
@@ -369,7 +370,8 @@ void testKafkaTopicDifferentStatesInUTOMode() throws InterruptedException {
 
         // Wait some time to check if error is still present in KafkaTopic status
         LOGGER.info("Waiting {} ms for next reconciliation", topicOperatorReconciliationIntervalMs);
-        Thread.sleep(topicOperatorReconciliationIntervalMs);
+
+        LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toNanos(topicOperatorReconciliationIntervalMs));
         assertKafkaTopicStatus(testStorage.getTopicName(), Environment.TEST_SUITE_NAMESPACE, Ready, False, reason, reasonMessage, expectedObservedGeneration);
 
         LOGGER.info("Changing KafkaTopic's spec to correct state");
@@ -384,7 +386,7 @@ void testKafkaTopicDifferentStatesInUTOMode() throws InterruptedException {
     }
 
     @ParallelTest
-    void testKafkaTopicChangingMinInSyncReplicas() throws InterruptedException {
+    void testKafkaTopicChangingMinInSyncReplicas() {
         final TestStorage testStorage = new TestStorage(ResourceManager.getTestContext());
 
         resourceManager.createResourceWithWait(KafkaTopicTemplates.topic(Environment.TEST_SUITE_NAMESPACE, testStorage.getTopicName(), sharedTestStorage.getClusterName(), 5).build());
@@ -406,7 +408,7 @@ void testKafkaTopicChangingMinInSyncReplicas() throws InterruptedException {
 
         // Wait some time to check if error is still present in KafkaTopic status
         LOGGER.info("Waiting {} ms for next reconciliation", topicOperatorReconciliationIntervalMs);
-        Thread.sleep(topicOperatorReconciliationIntervalMs);
+        LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toNanos(topicOperatorReconciliationIntervalMs));
         assertKafkaTopicStatus(testStorage.getTopicName(), Environment.TEST_SUITE_NAMESPACE, resourceStatus, conditionStatus, reason, reasonMessage, 2);
     }
 
diff --git a/test/src/main/java/io/strimzi/test/TestUtils.java b/test/src/main/java/io/strimzi/test/TestUtils.java
index 0695c5258df..6a2cfccd111 100644
--- a/test/src/main/java/io/strimzi/test/TestUtils.java
+++ b/test/src/main/java/io/strimzi/test/TestUtils.java
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+import java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport;
 import java.util.function.BooleanSupplier;
 import java.util.function.Function;
 
@@ -187,11 +188,7 @@ public static long waitFor(String description, long pollIntervalMs, long timeout
             if (LOGGER.isTraceEnabled()) {
                 LOGGER.trace("{} not ready, will try again in {} ms ({}ms till timeout)", description, sleepTime, timeLeft);
             }
-            try {
-                Thread.sleep(sleepTime);
-            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-                return deadline - System.currentTimeMillis();
-            }
+            LockSupport.parkNanos(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toNanos(sleepTime));
         }
     }