iMac display waking itself up *all the time*

Hey old Bill,

With the information we have currently, it's very difficult to say what process is taking place that would wake your Mac from sleep. However we do see that you have an opportunity to upgrade to macOS Ventura 13.0 and could certainly test things out while fully updated to see if this behavior persists.

If that doesn't help out, check out these possible scenarios which might be causing your Mac to wake unexpectedly:

Check to see if something else is waking your Mac

Check any of the following:

• Unexpected keyboard presses or mouse and trackpad clicks: Key presses and mouse or trackpad clicks can wake your Mac. If your Mac wakes when you’re not present, something may be pressing the trackpad or mouse button, or keyboard keys.

• Apps: Apps that access a disk can keep your Mac from going to sleep. For example, Music accesses your disk to read the songs it plays, and DVD Player accesses the optical disc drive to play movies.

• Spotlight indexing: If Spotlight is indexing your hard disk, your Mac won’t go to sleep. Open Spotlight  to see if it’s indexing. Indexing can take several hours, depending on the number of files on your Mac.

• Connected storage and devices: Malfunctioning USB and Thunderbolt storage and devices may keep your Mac from going to sleep. Disconnect those devices and see if your Mac goes to sleep. If it does, reconnect each item, one at a time, until you find the one that’s malfunctioning. Contact that device’s manufacturer for more information.

All this and more on your Mac waking unexpectedly is outlined here: If your Mac sleeps or wakes unexpectedly

We hope this helps out.

Take care!