Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate operating an access terminal in an LTE based wireless communication environment utilizing extended microsleep. While in non-DRX mode, an access terminal can operate in on state for a first period of time and in extended microsleep state for a second period of time. Further, the first and second periods of time can form a repeating pattern where these periods of time alternate. Thus, the access terminal can turn on its receiver for the first period of time (e.g., decode downlink information while in on state) and turn off its receiver for the second period of time (e.g., inhibit decoding of downlink information while in extended microsleep state). Further, the first period of time in the repeating pattern can be one TTI (e.g., 1 ms) and the second period of time in the repeating pattern can be a plurality of TTIs (e.g., 5 ms).