This paper proposes a novel energy-aware geographical forwarding protocol utilizing adaptive sleeping, in which each node selects its relay based on a new criterion that is based on its residual energy reserves and its geographical location to guarantee energy efficiency. In addition, this paper presents an adaptive sleep mechanism fully integrated into the new relay criterion, in which each node sleeps for a variable duration based on its residual energy reserves. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol significantly reduces the energy consumption of the network and improves its balance, especially when on heavy traffic load in dense networks. Our protocol is 20 times better in balancing the energy consumption compared with geographical random forwarding protocol. This paper proposes a novel energy-aware geographic forwarding protocol utilizing adaptive sleeping, in which each node selects its relay based on a new criterion that is based on its residual energy reserves and its geographical location to guarantee energy efficiency. In addition, this paper presents an adaptive sleep mechanism fully integrated into the new relay criterion, in which each node sleeps for a variable duration based on its residual energy reserves. on heavy traffic load in dense networks. Our protocol is 20 times better in balancing the energy consumption compared with geographical random forwarding protocol.