diff --git a/internal/selftelemetry/impl_test.go b/internal/selftelemetry/impl_test.go
index e9f652f2..f6b600f8 100644
--- a/internal/selftelemetry/impl_test.go
+++ b/internal/selftelemetry/impl_test.go
@@ -128,9 +128,14 @@ func TestReceiver_SetDegraded(t *testing.T) {
 
 	body := scrape(t, url)
 	require.Contains(t, body, "tracecore_receiver_degraded_seconds_total")
-	// Value must be >0 (>= ~0.05s).
+	// Value must be >0. The intent is "advanced past zero"; the
+	// fractional part must contain at least one non-zero digit. No
+	// upper bound — CI runners under contention can extend the
+	// observed window well past 50ms (a slow runner saw 0.126s on
+	// PR #76's rerun and failed against the prior `0\.0[0-9]+`
+	// upper-bound shape).
 	require.Regexp(t,
-		`tracecore_receiver_degraded_seconds_total\{[^}]*component_id="clockreceiver/TestReceiver_SetDegraded"[^}]*\}\s+0\.0[0-9]+`,
+		`tracecore_receiver_degraded_seconds_total\{[^}]*component_id="clockreceiver/TestReceiver_SetDegraded"[^}]*\}\s+\d+\.[0-9]*[1-9]`,
 		body, "degraded counter advanced past 0")
 
 	recv.SetDegraded(false)