Empathy or Hallucination?

Okay, so I've been having this problem recently.
I've had several instances where I hear or feel something and it causes me to snap awake. They don't feel like hypnagogic hallucinations, mostly because when I have those I don't wake up. But if they aren't hallucinations, is it empathy? How can I even tell?

The one time I was sure it was empathy was when I was trying to sleep in, but I kept hearing my phone vibrate under my pillow like my alarm was going off. Except that my phone was on the floor. My boyfriend's phone, would have been much closer to his head, in the other room. So I think I was connecting with him and hearing it like he was hearing it. Anyway.
The next time, I was trying to take a nap. This one was a lot like a hypnagogic hallucination or OBE, even though my eyes were closed I could still see my room. I felt a pressure next to my face like someone kissing me on the cheek.
I have black out curtains in my room, I figured I wouldn't sleep as long if I left one panel open. I tried to get back to sleep. Again, I could see the room through my closed eyes. Just as I was about to drift off, everything went dark like a light switch flipping. That startled me awake too.

Then today. I tried to take a nap. I was just about to fall asleep when I felt my phone vibrate under the blanket near my head, like I had gotten a text message.....except my phone was in my pocket. And I hadn't received a text.

One night, I was trying to sleep and every 30 minutes I would wake suddenly with my heart racing. I don't remember what woke me well enough to tell you, but they were similar. Noises, something touching me.

My heart races and refuses to calm down for 30 minutes to an hour after each occurrence, my resting heart rate is usually around 65bpm, but afterward it sits at 86bpm. I can feel my pulse in my teeth.

I suppose it's more likely that it's a new form of hypnagogia that I'm waking up for, but they feel different and empathy isn't beyond me. There have been times when friends in other states have been sick and I get ghost symptoms, or I know when they're upset even if they haven't spoken to me. Or I get stuck on someone else's emotion. Like the time I was trying to help a couple at work and everything about the woman was annoying me, I literally had to step away because I was overwhelmed with irritation for every pause she made between sentences and her need to look at every little detail and pick it apart. It felt so strange. I found an excuse to duck behind the desk to get a different book for her to look at and then I got a peek at her husband's face over her shoulder and it became clear that I had been overwhelmed with his irritation for her. Once I knew where it was coming from it was easier to ignore.

I don't know.
It's really frustrating.
I just wanna take a nap, damn it.
What do you guys think?

Somebody who loves you is trying to get you into an OBE for a visit. The cell phone ringing and/or the kiss is to raise your consciousness level so you can OBE exit. You are very lucky to have this happen. Understand what's happening, stay calm, then try one of the many OBE exit techniques, and then have a great visit!

It sounds most like FAs and hypnogagic hallucinations to me. If you've ever taken a deliriant it causes hallucinations very similar to the ones experienced in hypnogagic hallucinations, to include seeing the room with your eyes closed and getting phantom phone calls and texts with the phone in your pocket when it isn't really there and you realize your phone is actually on the bedstand or whatever. Deliriants work by their anticholinergic effects. It blocks acetylcholine from getting to receptors and causes these types of hallucinations. When your body falls asleep, the way your brain puts you in rem atonia is by halting its own connection with the body by no longer stimulating acetylcholine receptors. If you are in an FA or experiencing a form of sleep paralysis or rem atonia just before going to move (more likely an FA though), chances are you would get these types of phenomena/hallucinations. Ever wonder why you can never figure out you are dreaming, that things make no sense, and you just go with the flow in dreams? The same things happen with anticholinergic drugs, it's because when you are dreaming you are delirious. Btw, that doesn't mean go take deliriants, they are awful drugs that make you feel dysphoric as fuck and terrified the entire time. They give you horrifying hallucinations as well.

Regardless, knowing all that, it sounds 100% like a mixture of hypnogagic hallucinations and false awakenings rather than empathy or people trying to contact you. You are going into a highly altered state when you start to go to sleep and dream, and as such when you are aware during parts you normally aren't or shouldn't be, odd things are bound to occur, like your heart rate spiking from the panic of not knowing what's going on. That, or you may have a condition you are unaware.

My mind tends to drift towards what Snoop is saying and an in-between with Tihiti's explanation.

In my short experience with Sleep Paralysis I have found that there is some higher-will that desperately wants to wake me up. It does so in whatever way is most effective.

Snoop, when there is something unusual being 'sensed' by the body it will give an adrenergic response, right? Think of being in the jungle for example. And suddenly you notice a tweek in the forest. Your heart starts pumping and you are in heightened awareness. You can extend this chain-reaction by thinking of how the mind will react. A fearful mind (wrong,introspective,spectulative) will make up stories. It's a tiger! It's a human! It's a ghost!

Likewise, I theorize that when something is (sub)consciously sensed during the onset of sleep. At first the body reacts with a small adrenergic response. The mind will start speculating on what is going on and create hypnagogic dream images, audible hallucinations. Or both. But the point is that the body is sensing something is 'off'. Just last night I was hallucinating that someone is breathing down my neck. Deliriants is different, I think. Because, i've had some kratom before and I was drifting in this falseawakening state. The mind simply starts producing a world of it's own and thinks it is real. It lacks the strong input from the higher mind that is missing in Sleep Paralysis. Well, I believe it is the higher mind. It also lacked content like people breathing in my face and doing stuff to me that is oh so common in non drug-induced hypnagogic/sleep paralysis.

The absolutely most magical thing that happened to me in these night-time adventures was when I overcame the waking-up part from these hypnagogic sessions. The scare tactics simply was not enough to get my heart-beat pumping loud enough to actually wake me up. (Snoop's information is extremely valuable to me. And simply should be common knowledge among dreamers. The trick is to resist the urge to activate the waking acetylcholine system. Adrenals.) What I did that night was respond solely in dream images and used my dream body and dream voice to respond. I overcome the 'scary' scene and was plunged into a lucid dream that was remarkably special and distinct from ur average dream. Leading me to believe this was actually succesfull Astral Projection. For me a first time, ever and a major achievement. :P

The dream in question I was battling a force that was choking me and basically trying to kill me for 2-3 minutes. While it overpowered me at first IIRC I eventually won. Flew out my window into another world.