Cognitive wireless sensor networks (CWSNs) can use the idle authorized frequency band to solve the problem of spectrum resource shortage in traditional wireless sensor network. By employing spectrum hole in the authorized frequency band, the spectrum sensing technology can degrade the coexistent interference and enhance the performance of whole sensor network. Due to the characteristics of limited battery energy and low processing capacity with sensor nodes, it is necessary to enhance the energy efficiency while improving spectrum sensing performance. In this paper, a cooperative spectrum sensing strategy for CWSNs based on particle swarm optimization is proposed. Firstly, the system throughput and energy consumption are quantitatively analyzed, and the mathematical model related to energy efficiency is established. Secondly, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to obtain the optimal selected nodes set under the limited conditions of false alarm probability and detection probability. To avoid local optimization in the process of problem solving, Cauchy mutation method is introduced to optimize the parameter selection of fitness function. The experimental results illustrate that our proposed method can improve the throughput of the system while ensuring the sensing performance, and achieve the energy efficiency effectively.