Energy conservation is a critical problem in recently-emerging wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Pulse position modulation (PPM), as an exploring-worthy modulation format for energy efficiency, is tailored for WSNs into two schemes, mono-mode PPM and multi-mode PPM, in this paper. Resorting to an idealized system model and a practical system model, which combine the power consumptions in transmission and reception modules of nodes with the idealized and realistic battery characteristics, the battery energy efficiencies of mono-mode PPM and multi-mode PPM are evaluated and compared. To minimize the battery energy consumption (BEC), these schemes are further optimized in terms of constellation size M for a link in path-loss channels. Our analytical and numerical results show that considerable energy can be saved by multi-mode PPM; and the optimization performances of these schemes are noticeable at various communication distances though their optimization properties are different. Energy conservation is a critical problem in recently-emerging wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Pulse position modulation (PPM), as an exploring-worthy modulation format for energy efficiency, is tailored for WSNs into two schemes, mono-mode PPM and multi- mode PPM, in this paper. Resorting to an idealized system model and a practical system model, which combine the power consumptions in transmission and reception modules of nodes with the idealized and realistic battery characteristics, the battery energy efficiencies of mono-mode PPM and multi To minimize the battery energy consumption (BEC), these schemes are further optimized in terms of constellation size M for a link in path-loss channels. Our analytical and numerical results show that considerable energy can be saved by multi-mode PPM; and the optimization performances of these schemes are noticeable at various communication stops though their optimization properties are different.