A wireless network is disclosed that allows an access point (AP) to keep a station (STA) in an awake state for an extended duration by periodically sending “keep-awake” frames to the STA. The keep-awake frames may be NULL frames having an asserted “more data” bit. For some embodiments, the AP transmits a beacon frame to the STA, wherein the beacon frame includes an asserted traffic indication bit that causes the STA to remain in the awake state for an additional wake-up period. Then, the AP transmits a sequence of keep-awake frames to the STA, wherein each keep-awake frame causes the STA to remain in the awake state for an additional time period.