A method, apparatus, and system are provided for monitoring locks using monitor-memory wait. In one embodiment, a memory to store instructions to perform functions of a monitoring mechanism is provided. The monitoring mechanism having a first logic to cause a processor to exit a sleep state in response to an event, wherein exiting the sleep state comprises resuming control of processing resources that were relinquished by the processor during the sleep state. The monitoring mechanism having a second logic to disable monitoring of a node associated with a contended lock after the processor exits the sleep state.