A method at a user equipment, UE, for releasing resources, the method comprising: determining a transition of the UE from a continuous reception state to a short discontinuous reception, DRX, state; determining whether one or more uplink control channel resources allocated to the UE by a wireless network node have been released by the wireless network node in response to the transition from the continuous reception state to the short DRX state; and in response to determining that the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources have been released by the wireless network node: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the continuous reception state to the short DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless network node; in response to determining that the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources have not been released by the wireless network node: waiting to identify a transition from the short DRX state to a long DRX state of the UE; and in response to identifying the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless access node. determining a transition of the UE from a continuous reception state to a short discontinuous reception, DRX, state; determining whether one or more uplink control channel resources allocated to the UE by a wireless network node have been released by the wireless network node in response to the transition from the continuous reception state to the short DRX state; and in response to determining that the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources have been released by the wireless network node: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the continuous reception state to the short DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless network node; in response to determining that the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources have not been released by the wireless network node: waiting to identify a transition from the short DRX state to a long DRX state of the UE; and in response to identifying the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless access node. in response to determining that the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources have been released by the wireless network node: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the continuous reception state to the short DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless network node; in response to determining that the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources have not been released by the wireless network node: waiting to identify a transition from the short DRX state to a long DRX state of the UE; and in response to identifying the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless access node. waiting to identify a transition from the short DRX state to a long DRX state of the UE; and in response to identifying the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state: automatically releasing the one or more allocated uplink control channel resources in response to the transition from the short DRX state to the long DRX state without using messaging communication with the wireless access node.