diff --git a/include/zephyr/kernel.h b/include/zephyr/kernel.h
index 65a896efedf..6f9d09a4c10 100644
--- a/include/zephyr/kernel.h
+++ b/include/zephyr/kernel.h
@@ -545,9 +545,10 @@ __syscall int k_thread_join(struct k_thread *thread, k_timeout_t timeout);
  *
  * @param timeout Desired duration of sleep.
  *
- * @return Zero if the requested time has elapsed or if the thread was woken up
- * by the \ref k_wakeup call, the time left to sleep rounded up to the nearest
- * millisecond.
+ * @return Zero if the requested time has elapsed or the time left to
+ * sleep rounded up to the nearest millisecond (e.g. if the thread was
+ * awoken by the \ref k_wakeup call).  Will be clamped to INT_MAX in
+ * the case where the remaining time is unrepresentable in an int32_t.
  */
 __syscall int32_t k_sleep(k_timeout_t timeout);
 
diff --git a/kernel/sched.c b/kernel/sched.c
index d5fe15ede44..a612ccb03ff 100644
--- a/kernel/sched.c
+++ b/kernel/sched.c
@@ -1123,12 +1123,12 @@ int32_t z_impl_k_sleep(k_timeout_t timeout)
 
 	ticks = z_tick_sleep(ticks);
 
-	int32_t ret = K_TIMEOUT_EQ(timeout, K_FOREVER) ? K_TICKS_FOREVER :
-		      k_ticks_to_ms_ceil64(ticks);
+	/* k_sleep() still returns 32 bit milliseconds for compatibility */
+	int64_t ms = K_TIMEOUT_EQ(timeout, K_FOREVER) ? K_TICKS_FOREVER :
+		CLAMP(k_ticks_to_ms_ceil64(ticks), 0, INT_MAX);
 
-	SYS_PORT_TRACING_FUNC_EXIT(k_thread, sleep, timeout, ret);
-
-	return ret;
+	SYS_PORT_TRACING_FUNC_EXIT(k_thread, sleep, timeout, ms);
+	return (int32_t) ms;
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_USERSPACE