On a fast CPU with a slow timer (e.g. XTIMER_SHIFT > 0) it is possible
that now == _xtimer_now() when spinning for the overflow. In the extreme
case When this happens _next_period() will be called more than once
until the timer overflows for real.
Fault observed in real life when running on a 32.768 kHz timer on a
~96 MHz clocked mulle (Kinetis K60, Cortex-M4). _next_period() was
called 9 times during the same ISR call before the 32 kHz timer
overflowed.