C++11 sleep does not suspend the operation

I have a Runnable class (C++) which implements run() method and it this method, I have an infinite loop which sends a message over a connection (this is not important).

However, it sends the messages too fast and this is totally unnecessary, thus I introduced a sleep function this_thread::sleep_for(chrono::milliseconds(10000)); and I expect this to slow down the speed, however it did not matter, it still sends fast as hell.

I am using ROS and ActiveMQ at the same time, these two introduce their own threads (I think) and this is the cause of the problem in my case I believe. Here is the piece of code in the main which does the whole thing:

    // Start the producer thread.
    Thread producerThread(&producer);
    image_transport::Subscriber sub = it.subscribe("/uwsim/camera1", 1,  imageCallback); // do the whole iamge processing
    producerThread.start(); // pass the vision data! run() function is here initiated!
    this_thread::sleep_for(chrono::milliseconds(10000)); //sleep a bit? does not work..
    ros::spin();

    // Wait for the threads to complete.
    producerThread.join();
    producer.close();

Why do you think my sleep function is not working? Do you think I placed it in the wrong line? Any idea?