How can I change my iPad's wake up screen settings?

The initial lock screen wallpaper can be customised - allowing you to add or remove certain data widgets. Adding more widgets to this screen might not be the best way to meet your needs.

When you tap the screen to wake the screen, unless you dismiss the screen with an upward swipe, the iPad will return to its locked/sleep state and turn-off the screen after about five seconds. This is behaviour cannot be changed from iPad settings.

If the available time period to read the information that you see on your iPad's lock-screen is insufficient, consider adding the Widgets in which you have interest to your iPad's Today View, or to a Home Screen.

Add, edit, and remove widgets on iPad - Apple Support

Apple invite submission of comments and feature requests via its Product Feedback portal. If you would like to see a specific feature or functionality in a future version of iPadOS, such as being able to extend the display period of the lock screen, this would be the most appropriate channel through which to make a request:

Feedback - iPad - Apple

Presumably you have an iPad Pro with FaceID. Try enabling the Attention Aware feature...

Settings > FaceID & Passcode > Attention-Aware Features - set to ON

When set to ON - the iPad will sense your attention - and prevent the iPad screen from automatically dimming, or locking the display - while you are actively looking directly at the screen. The timeout period is determined by the Auto-Lock setting:

Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto Lock > select as required

Al_Chance wrote:

While asleep, I tap the screen and get some initial info before it goes dark again. I can't read it all in 5 seconds. Else I have to go swipe up to Main Screen immediately to keep it from gong dark again.

What sort of information?