After waking from sleep, my Macbook Pro shows grey progress bar

Question

I have the mid 2012 Macbook Pro (13 inch). When I leave it open and let it fall asleep after the time I have chose, it wakes up again fine.
But if I choose the sleep from the Apple in the menu bar or SHUT the lid, when I wake it up, it shows the grey progress bars and takes about 3-4 minutes before it is responsive again.
Any advice? I'd just like it to sleep normally. It's a bit embarrassing to have to wait that long if I'm trying to show off how cool my laptop is
Here are the specs, copied from my System Information:
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier:          MacBookPro9,2
  Processor Name:          Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed:          2.9 GHz
  Number of Processors:          1
  Total Number of Cores:          2
  L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB
  L3 Cache:          4 MB
  Memory:          8 GB
  Boot ROM Version:          MBP91.00D3.B08
  SMC Version (system):          2.2f41
  Serial Number (system):          C2QJF09CF5WW
  Hardware UUID:          494AC457-6424-55C1-ACC3-61DDC76AA035
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:          Enabled
Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

This was added to all 2012 model MBPs as part of some bs Euro power saving standard.  By default, when on AC power, the system has to sleep for 14400 seconds before this deeper hibernation state happens.  When that happens, the system takes a while to resume to normal operation.  There is a workaround for this and it is available on this site, but I urge you to call AppleCare and complain about this issue yourself please because without a lot of complaints about it, Apple won't fix it.  The workaround is to simply issue a command in a Terminal prompt that disables this option from happening, but it's not a fix by any means.