Thanks for the clarification. That helps. While you confirm if there is a way to distinguish between a dark wake and actual wake, would checking if any display is "awake" on a "wake" event be conclusive to know if its a dark wake or a full wake? Something like the below - (void)wake { dispatch_time_t delay = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, (int64_t)(2000 * NSEC_PER_MSEC)); __weak typeof(self) weakSelf = self; dispatch_after(delay, dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ __strong typeof(weakSelf) self = weakSelf; if (!self) return; BOOL displayAwake = [self isAnyDisplayAwake]; if (!displayAwake) { // Dark wake ? return; } }); // Genuine wake ? } - (BOOL)isAnyDisplayAwake { uint32_t displayCount = 0; CGGetOnlineDisplayList(0, NULL, &displayCount); if (displayCount == 0) return NO; CGDirectDisplayID *displays = (CGDirectDisplayID *) calloc(displayCount, sizeof(CGDirectDisplayID)); if (!displays) return NO; BOOL anyDisplayAwake = NO; if (CGGetOnlineDisplayList(displayCount, displays, &displayCount) == kCGErrorSuccess) { for (uint32_t i = 0; i < displayCount; i++) { if (!CGDisplayIsAsleep(displays[i])) { anyDisplayAwake = YES; break; } } } free(displays); if (!anyDisplayAwake) { return NO; } return YES; }