A method implemented at a user equipment (UE) may include receiving a grant from a base station permitting the user equipment to transmit data to the base station and transmitting data to the base station, where the data includes a buffer status report (BSR) that indicates an amount of data in a buffer of the UE. The method may further include starting or restarting a discontinuous reception (DRX) timer when the data including the BSR is transmitted to the base station. The method may additionally include monitoring (730) a control channel during a duration of the DRX timer. In another implementation, a method may include receiving a feedback message in response to the data transmission including the BSR, and starting or restarting the discontinuous reception (DRX) timer when the feedback message is received. The feedback message may include an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK). In a further implementation, a method may include starting a process specific hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round trip time (RTT) timer upon transmission of the data including the BSR, starting a grant timer when the HARQ RTT timer expires, and monitoring the control channel during a duration of the grant timer.