Methods and apparatus for reducing power consumption of a mobile station (MS) during layer 3 (L3) peer-to-peer (P2P) communications employing a request/response message pair are provided. To save power, the MS may enter a power saving mode after transmitting a request message and initiating a timeout timer for the message pair, wherein the power saving mode may have an interval available for receiving the response message and an unavailable interval. The timeout timer may be suspended during the unavailable interval and resumed during the available interval such that the timeout timer is effectively lengthened.