diff --git a/iocore/eventsystem/I_Thread.h b/iocore/eventsystem/I_Thread.h
index 30ea6e77d45..bc288f26eac 100644
--- a/iocore/eventsystem/I_Thread.h
+++ b/iocore/eventsystem/I_Thread.h
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ class Thread
 protected:
   Thread();
 
-  static thread_local ink_hrtime cur_time;
+  static ink_hrtime cur_time;
 };
 
 extern Thread *this_thread();
@@ -189,5 +189,12 @@ Thread::get_hrtime()
 TS_INLINE ink_hrtime
 Thread::get_hrtime_updated()
 {
-  return cur_time = ink_get_hrtime_internal();
+  ink_hrtime now = ink_get_hrtime_internal();
+  if (now > cur_time) {
+    // Thread::cur_time is used frequently in most threads.  By avoiding unnecessary writes of it, locks of its cache line
+    // in (all) per-core caches are reduced.  This should reduce CPU core stalls.
+    //
+    cur_time = now;
+  }
+  return cur_time;
 }
diff --git a/iocore/eventsystem/Thread.cc b/iocore/eventsystem/Thread.cc
index 5bdc5fc765a..38c6c340908 100644
--- a/iocore/eventsystem/Thread.cc
+++ b/iocore/eventsystem/Thread.cc
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 // Common Interface impl                     //
 ///////////////////////////////////////////////
 
-thread_local ink_hrtime Thread::cur_time = ink_get_hrtime_internal();
+ink_hrtime Thread::cur_time = ink_get_hrtime_internal();
 thread_local Thread *Thread::this_thread_ptr;
 
 Thread::Thread()