One of my cats does the exact same thing. Occasionally she wakes me up tapping my face with her paw.
Last night I was trying to ease my big guy's foot out from under my rib cage and he clawed me in the face.
This morning he was hugging me so hard and purring so loudly I had a hell of a time easing my ownself out of bed.
Codependency is what it's called.