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Wireless sensor networks have become increasingly popular due to their wide range of applications. Energy consumption is one of the biggest constraints of the wireless sensor node and this limitation combined with a typical deployment of large number of nodes have added many challenges to the design and management of wireless sensor networks. They are typically used for remote environment monitoring in areas where providing electrical power is difficult. Therefore, the devices need to be powered by batteries and alternative energy sources. Because battery energy is limited, the use of different techniques for energy saving is one of the hottest topics in WSNs. In this work, we present a survey of power saving and energy optimization techniques for wireless sensor networks, which enhances the ones in existence and introduces the reader to the most well known available methods that can be used to save energy. They are analyzed from several points of view: Device hardware, transmission, MAC and routing protocols.