Methods and devices are disclosed for efficient signaling of discontinuous transmission in a wireless communication system. In various aspects of the disclosure, a user equipment device monitors transmissions on a plurality of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) and, in response to said transmissions, generates an acknowledge/negative acknowledge (ACK/NACK) signal comprising a plurality of bits, wherein the plurality of bits includes a discontinuous transmission (DTX) indicator bit. In some embodiments, the indicator bit corresponds to an even or odd number of PDCCHs successfully decoded. In other embodiments, the indicator bit corresponds to an odd or even number of component carriers comprising “TRUE” NACKs.