A wireless device configured for discontinuous reception (DRX) may and operating in a system that uses directional beamforming may identify a random access time period after awaking from a DRX sleep mode. The device may then transmit a scheduling request during the random access time period. In some cases, the device may transmit the scheduling request using frequency resources also associated with random access transmissions. In other cases, the device may utilize resources that are not associated with random access. The determination of which frequency resources are used may depend on the length of the DRX. That is, if a device has been in a sleep mode for a long time, it may use random access frequency resources that are associated with a more robust transmission configuration.