Hi desm1,
Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities. It sounds like your Mac has an ambient light sensor and is adjusting the brightness automatically. This article explains more about this and how to turn this off if needed: Change your Mac display’s brightness
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Automatically adjust brightness
- If your Mac has an ambient light sensor, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Displays .
- Select “Automatically adjust brightness.”
If you don’t see the “Automatically adjust brightness” checkbox, you can manually adjust the brightness.
Manually adjust brightness
- On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Displays .
- Drag the Brightness slider to adjust the brightness of your display.
Depending on the type of display connected to your Mac, you may also see a Contrast slider that you can use to adjust the display’s contrast.
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Take care.