system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why my phones touchscreen sometimes registers a touch when in reality my finger is millemeter or two from screen?

My guess is static electricity since it only happens once in a while and randomly but i am hoping for more insightful explanation.

Edit:
It also usually happens in the middle of typing. It never happened, for me, on first letters I typed. And, I am sure my finger did not touch the screen in a way i just did not feel it. When it happened i was surely away from screen, that is why it always jumps out when it happens. It is always unexpected.

Edit2:
I can surely replicate phone registering very soft touches (without me feeling actually touching it) but those random ones I am experiencing are different, the finger is always a lot further away than when i can register a touch without feeling it by testing. A lot may be very relative term but that is how it feels to me, i am not really sure how far the finger actually is because it usually happens really fast and its hard to measure so small distances with feelings. So, there is a small chance that i am imagining it.

Edit3:
I am using Redmi 5A if that makes any difference.

Edit4: I searched my phone but did not find any settings that increase screen sensitivity or glove mode or anything like that. It is an android 1.7.2.
gpt
Yes modern day phone touchscreens work on the fact that human skin conducts electricity and can act as small capacitor. That's why you can also touch with your earphone wire. 

Early touchscreens(not too long ago though) used to be pressure based when you needed to press hard.