We consider the problem of scheduling communications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to ensure battery preservation through the use of the sleeping mode of sensors.We propose a communication protocol for 1-hop WSNs and extend it to multi-hop WSNs through the use of a 1-hop clustering algorithm.We propose to schedule communications in each cluster in a virtual communication ring so as to avoid collisions. Since clusters are cliques, only one sensor can speak or listen in a cluster at a time, and all sensors need to speak in each of their clusters at least once to realize the communication protocol. We model this situation as a mathematical program.