The present disclosure relates to discontinuous reception communication synchronization methods and apparatus. One example method includes receiving a system message that is broadcast by a base station and that indicates that the base station supports a capability of extended discontinuous reception (DRX), sending an extended DRX value to a network element of a core network, receiving, from the network element of the core network, extended DRX support information indicating that the network element of the core network supports the extended DRX, calculating a paging time using the extended DRX value, and receiving a paging message delivered from the base station according to the paging time.