I think you're suffering from Phantom Notification Syndrome. It might be a thing. After all, right after cellphones were made popular, a new, medically-valid-if-psycologically-absurd syndrome arose: Phantom Vibration Syndrome. People ARE getting to the point where they can FEEL and/or HEAR their cellphones vibrating or ringing even though they're not or even when the cellphone's not even with them. More common with people who keep their phone in their front pants pockets (something to do with thighs being more sensitive).
That being said, I haven't seen any of that... yet... But what you could do is get a camcorder, place it so it's always looking at the screen (and it's in focus) and just record yourself turning the screen on, then off, then on, then off... until you see your notification icons. Then you can review the video, frame by frame. If you have one of those cameras that can record 'slow mo' video at true 120fps or more, that's better (but will take you longer to find the right frame hehe).