Its power saving settings, after a certain time, your screen will turn off, after a longer certain time, it will go into hybernation, there has always been issues with the hybernation, the issues always happen with getting back, you can stop this by doing this:
Windows 7/Vista :
Right click on your Desktop
Hit Personalize
Scroll down and hit Screensaver
Click the "Change Power Saving" text
On the side bar, hit "change when the computer sleeps"
Change it to Never, and the screen turn off to whenever you want.
Its similar instructions for XP so depending on your operating system, if you just follow the basics of that, it should get you where you need to go