Another apparatus for wireless communications at a UE is described. The apparatus may include means for receiving a discontinuous reception cycle configuration from a base station that indicates a set of discontinuous reception cycles within a discontinuous reception period that each have an ON-duration during which the UE is to be in an active mode to monitor for transmissions from the base station, and where the UE transitions to an inactive mode after one or more of the ON-durations until a subsequent ON-duration, identifying a channel measurement schedule that indicates a timing for one or more channel measurements of the UE, where at least a first channel measurement occurs when the UE is to be in the inactive mode of the discontinuous reception cycle configuration, determining that a change in a channel quality metric exceeds a threshold value during a predetermined period before the first channel measurement, and setting the UE to be in a limited active mode to perform the first scheduled channel measurement based on the determining that the change in the channel quality metric exceeds the threshold value for at least the predetermined period before the first channel measurement.