Display turns on during sleep

Uncheck Power Nap and test.

I use these settings with all of my Mac Mini's.

Computer Sleep to Never. (that way it only sleeps when I tell it to)

Display Sleep to 10min. (only the display sleeps if I get called away or distracted)

Put hard disks to sleep unchecked. (then my disks are up and ready when it's wakes from sleep)

Wake For Network access unchecked. (I do not have or use any services that require this access)

Start up automatically after a power failure unchecked. (I do not want it to restart during intermittent power issues)

Enable Power Nap unchecked. (I do not need or want my Mac Mini doing or checking those services unsupervised)

There is nothing is changing when your Mac Mini is sleeping, so there is really no need to disturb it just for hourly backups. In fact, that disturbance is most likely what is causing the screen to pop on.

Yeah' the differences is, that screen shot is from my Late 2012 i7 SSD 16GB Mac Mini running Mojave.

If the display is popping on with Enable Power Nap unchecked, then I would reset the Mac Mini's SMC.

see > How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Then if the display is still popping on during sleep, I would suspect power fluctuations on you local grid or the cat if you have one.

To much caffeine will cause restless sleep.

You're welcome.

Any heavy construction traffic, or noises (e.g. rumbling thunder) near the residence? If so, these can vibrate the mouse, and that is sufficient to wake the Mac. I have witnessed this happening here when an occasional heavy truck passes in the street.

> Put hard disks to sleep [when possible] unchecked. (then my disks are up and ready when it's wakes from sleep)

I guess that setting applies to the time when the computer is awake, right? And putting computer to sleep always puts also HDs to sleep? OR would there be any harm keeping SSDs always on (HDDs constantly spinning would be another matter although needlessly repeatedly unspinning/re-spinning HDDs might not be a good thing either)?

BTW I always make monitor's upper left hand corner a No Sleep hotspot and put the mouse cursor there while doing lengthy updates etc.

...the only drawback of the no-sleep hotspot is that sometimes I have to tell the kids not to touch the mouse or bump the table when the computer is busy doing something and I walk away for a while 8-)

> Put hard disks to sleep [when possible] unchecked. (then my disks are up and ready when it's wakes from sleep)

I guess that setting applies to the time when the computer is awake, right? And putting computer to sleep always puts also HDs to sleep?

Yes sorry, I ment to say “when the display wakes from sleep”