MacBook Pro sleep disconnects external drives

I have two stand alone disk drives only Mac book pro that I use for backup and to use for my working data. The problem is that when the computer goes into the sleep mode when I awaken it the disk drives data I am no longer able to access the the data on the drives until I eject the drives then reattach them to the computer. Is this normal or is there something that has to be done to stop this from happening. My MAC Book Pro ia a 16-inch 2019 model. I am running the most recent MacOS.

Alfred

[Edited by Moderator]