Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE), may receive, at a processing layer of the UE, sets of discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle parameters from a corresponding set of applications at an application layer of the UE. The UE may determine, based on the sets of DRX parameters, a common DRX cycle to satisfy each of the sets of applications. The UE may transmit the common DRX cycle to one or more layers in the user plane protocol stack of the UE. A base station may also receive a request, from the UE, for a set of DRX cycle parameters that satisfies the common DRX cycle of the UE. The base station may transmit an indication of the set of DRX parameters, and receive, from the UE, a confirmation of a DRX cycle associated with the set of DRX cycle parameters.