diff --git a/src/ruby/pb/test/client.rb b/src/ruby/pb/test/client.rb
index feedcde7a50c89c4933ab43d7f8cfea09238160c..b6695482a286e8626080e505c1b793bfd9bcef3f 100755
--- a/src/ruby/pb/test/client.rb
+++ b/src/ruby/pb/test/client.rb
@@ -317,7 +317,8 @@ class NamedTests
   def timeout_on_sleeping_server
     msg_sizes = [[27_182, 31_415]]
     ppp = PingPongPlayer.new(msg_sizes)
-    resps = @stub.full_duplex_call(ppp.each_item, timeout: 0.001)
+    deadline = GRPC::Core::TimeConsts::from_relative_time(0.001)
+    resps = @stub.full_duplex_call(ppp.each_item, deadline: deadline)
     resps.each { |r| ppp.queue.push(r) }
     fail 'Should have raised GRPC::BadStatus(DEADLINE_EXCEEDED)'
   rescue GRPC::BadStatus => e