A method to improve paging process by including additional backup paging opportunities in new radio unlicensed (NR-U) systems is proposed. To cope with the downlink transmission impairments arising from possible listen-before-talk (LBT) failures, NR-U user equipment (UE) can listen the additional paging opportunities (POs) to get the paging message. In an efficient mechanism, additional backup paging opportunities are configured while minimizing the UE's power consumption. The invention also reduces UE's power consumption by configuring short and micro sleep cycles between successive backup paging opportunities. In addition, to avoid continuous listening to the backup paging opportunities, paging monitoring can be suspended for a UE if the LBT is successful and the paging is not intended for the UE.