The invention relates to a method for operating a communication system (100) having a plurality of communication units (300, 301, 302, 303, 304) which are connected to a communication medium (110), wherein access to the communication medium (110) is granted to the communication units (300, 301, 302, 303, 304) in a predefined order, wherein, after the end of a standby mode, a communication unit (300, 301, 302, 303, 304) checks whether it is granted access and changes to the standby mode again for a pause duration (T1, T2) until access is likely to be granted to it again if the communication unit (300, 301, 302, 303, 304) does not require access to the communication medium (110) or is not granted access.