THREAD - how to stop running thread

private volatile Thread blinker;

    public void stop() {
        blinker = null;
    }

    public void run() {
        Thread thisThread = Thread.currentThread();
        while (blinker == thisThread) {
            try {
                Thread.sleep(interval);
            } catch (InterruptedException e){
            }
            repaint();
        }
    }

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/concurrency/threadPrimitiveDeprecation.html