This would only be true for very short time periods (minutes) that cause the compressor to power up more times than it would have otherwise as compressor startup incurs transiently high power consumption, but a thermostat will usually do this many times a day, so the period of time that this has any practical implication is very short (<1 hour). At longer time periods, it is always more energy efficient to disable cooling and restart it only when temperature control is again desired.
Even among people who service AC units I've encountered the misconception that it is more energy efficient to keep a space at the desired temperature than it is to let it heat up and then cool it back down again, but thermodynamics say it is not so. It could conceivably be more cost efficient if your energy costs are variable.
Even among people who service AC units I've encountered the misconception that it is more energy efficient to keep a space at the desired temperature than it is to let it heat up and then cool it back down again, but thermodynamics say it is not so. It could conceivably be more cost efficient if your energy costs are variable.