diff --git a/control-plane/rest/Cargo.toml b/control-plane/rest/Cargo.toml
index a3f26f862..950c770a4 100644
--- a/control-plane/rest/Cargo.toml
+++ b/control-plane/rest/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ rustls = { version = "0.23.19", default-features = false }
 rustls-pemfile = "2.2.0"
 actix-web = { version = "4.9.0", features = ["rustls-0_23"] }
 actix-service = "2.0.2"
+tokio = { version = "1.41.0", features = ["sync"] }
 opentelemetry = { version = "0.26.0" }
 tracing-actix-web = { version = "0.7.14", features = ["opentelemetry_0_26"] }
 tracing = "0.1.40"
diff --git a/control-plane/rest/service/src/health/core_state.rs b/control-plane/rest/service/src/health/core_state.rs
index 46c02df1e..2aaadf19b 100644
--- a/control-plane/rest/service/src/health/core_state.rs
+++ b/control-plane/rest/service/src/health/core_state.rs
@@ -1,14 +1,12 @@
 use crate::v0::core_grpc;
 use grpc::operations::node::traits::NodeOperations;
-use std::{
-    sync::RwLock,
-    time::{Duration, Instant},
-};
+use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
+use tokio::sync::Mutex;
 
 /// This is a type to cache the liveness of the agent-core service.
 /// This is meant to be wrapped inside an Arc and used across threads.
 pub struct CachedCoreState {
-    state: RwLock<ServerState>,
+    state: Mutex<ServerState>,
     cache_duration: Duration,
 }
 
@@ -18,13 +16,23 @@ struct ServerState {
     last_updated: Instant,
 }
 
+impl ServerState {
+    /// Update the state of the agent-core service, or assume it's unavailable if something
+    /// went wrong.
+    async fn update_or_assume_unavailable(&mut self) {
+        let new_value = core_grpc().node().probe(None).await.unwrap_or(false);
+        self.is_live = new_value;
+        self.last_updated = Instant::now();
+    }
+}
+
 impl CachedCoreState {
     /// Create a new cache for serving readiness health checks based on agent-core health.
     pub async fn new(cache_duration: Duration) -> Self {
         let agent_core_is_live = core_grpc().node().probe(None).await.unwrap_or(false);
 
         CachedCoreState {
-            state: RwLock::new(ServerState {
+            state: Mutex::new(ServerState {
                 is_live: agent_core_is_live,
                 last_updated: Instant::now(),
             }),
@@ -35,24 +43,12 @@ impl CachedCoreState {
     /// Get the cached state of the agent-core service, or assume it's unavailable if something
     /// went wrong.
     pub async fn get_or_assume_unavailable(&self) -> bool {
-        let should_update = {
-            let state = self.state.read().unwrap();
-            state.last_updated.elapsed() >= self.cache_duration
-        };
+        let mut state = self.state.lock().await;
 
-        if should_update {
-            self.update_or_assume_unavailable().await;
+        if state.last_updated.elapsed() >= self.cache_duration {
+            state.update_or_assume_unavailable().await;
         }
 
-        self.state.read().unwrap().is_live
-    }
-
-    /// Update the state of the agent-core service, or assume it's unavailable if something
-    /// went wrong.
-    pub async fn update_or_assume_unavailable(&self) {
-        let new_value = core_grpc().node().probe(None).await.unwrap_or(false);
-        let mut state = self.state.write().unwrap();
-        state.is_live = new_value;
-        state.last_updated = Instant::now();
+        state.is_live
     }
 }