My phone is almost always on vibrate as opposed to a ring, and I experience this, too. For a while I thought there was some artefact with the phone such as it telling me I had some message or other that I was simply too technically illiterate to find. Then I realized I felt it even when I did not have the phone on me, but always in the same spot I kept the phone in my pocket.
I wonder what the explanation is...
My dead mother-in-law has learned how to text, so I get the notification, but not the message?
Linda