diff --git a/repos/base/include/timer_session/timer_session.h b/repos/base/include/timer_session/timer_session.h
index 1df9a7db3b..f552a39ac9 100644
--- a/repos/base/include/timer_session/timer_session.h
+++ b/repos/base/include/timer_session/timer_session.h
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ struct Timer::Session : Genode::Session
 	 * Program periodic timeout (in microseconds)
 	 *
 	 * The first period will be triggered after 'us' at the latest,
-	 * but it might be triggered earlier as well.
+	 * but it might be triggered earlier as well. The 'us' value 0
+	 * disables periodic timeouts.
 	 */
 	virtual void trigger_periodic(uint64_t us) = 0;
 
diff --git a/repos/base/src/lib/timeout/timeout.cc b/repos/base/src/lib/timeout/timeout.cc
index 2edda0cbf5..84d35e44bb 100644
--- a/repos/base/src/lib/timeout/timeout.cc
+++ b/repos/base/src/lib/timeout/timeout.cc
@@ -276,7 +276,8 @@ void Timeout_scheduler::_schedule_periodic_timeout(Timeout         &timeout,
 
 	/* prevent using a period of 0 */
 	if (period.value == 0) {
-		period.value = 1;
+		error("attempt to schedule a periodic timeout of 0");
+		return;
 	}
 	_schedule_timeout(timeout, Microseconds { 0 }, period, handler);
 }
diff --git a/repos/base/src/timer/include/session_component.h b/repos/base/src/timer/include/session_component.h
index d9f3058287..dd9c456355 100644
--- a/repos/base/src/timer/include/session_component.h
+++ b/repos/base/src/timer/include/session_component.h
@@ -65,8 +65,8 @@ class Timer::Session_component : public  Genode::Rpc_object<Session>,
 		 ** Timer::Session **
 		 ********************/
 
-		void trigger_once(uint64_t us) override {
-
+		void trigger_once(uint64_t us) override
+		{
 			/*
 			 * FIXME Workaround for the problem that Alarm scheduler may
 			 *       categorize big timeouts into the wrong time counter
@@ -80,8 +80,13 @@ class Timer::Session_component : public  Genode::Rpc_object<Session>,
 			_timeout.schedule_one_shot(typed_us, *this);
 		}
 
-		void trigger_periodic(uint64_t us) override {
-			_timeout.schedule_periodic(Microseconds(us), *this); }
+		void trigger_periodic(uint64_t us) override
+		{
+			if (us)
+				_timeout.schedule_periodic(Microseconds(us), *this);
+			else
+				_timeout.discard();
+		}
 
 		void sigh(Signal_context_capability sigh) override
 		{