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Is Sleep Apnea a Disability for Social Security Benefits in Ohio?

Horenstein, Nicholson & Blumenthal LPA /  SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY /  Qualifying /  SLEEP APNEA

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Can’t Work and Need a Break from Financial Stress?

Being unable to sleep well ruins every aspect of your life.

Sleep apnea is common—the American Medical Association thinks 30 million people in the United States have it—and it’s the kind of dangerous sleep disorder that can leave you debilitated.

Social Security Disability benefits provide economic support when health problems rob you of the ability to work. But is sleep apnea a disability as far as Social Security is concerned?

Officially, no.

Social Security Disability doesn’t recognize sleep apnea as an impairment that can clearly qualify for benefits.

But you don’t absolutely need that. You need to demonstrate that your health status, whatever the ailment, makes it impossible for you to work. This includes combinations of health problems and how your individual symptoms limit your activities.

An experienced Social Security Disability lawyer can help you put together your application. The Ohio disability lawyers at Horenstein, Nicholson & Blumenthal have:

  • Helped Ohioans for over 40 years
  • Helped thousands of people
  • Secured millions in benefits for workers

If disjointed breathing at night interrupts your sleep, leaving you feeling spent in the morning and stifling your ability to get through the day, our disability attorneys may be able to find a way for you to secure economic relief and the leeway you need to reclaim your life.

“Helping me, that’s HNB.”

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    Qualifying for Social Security Disability with Conditions Related to Sleep Apnea

    When you have severe sleep apnea, and you have another medical condition that often goes with sleep apnea, the core of your Social Security Disability claim may be that other condition.

    Millions of people live with sleep apnea and still go to work (meaning they wouldn’t get disability benefits). Many can manage it with treatments like a CPAP machine.

    But Social Security does expressly cover many other health impairments that can be related to sleep apnea.

    These are some examples:

    • Cardiovascular diseases (including heart failure, arrhythmias, hypertension)
    • Behavior problems
    • Cognitive impairment (difficulty reasoning and processing information)
    • Diabetes
    • Hormonal imbalance disorders
    • Lung conditions (such as pulmonary hypertension)
    • Mental health and mood disorders (anxiety, depression and more)
    • Obesity
    • Thyroid disorders

    For health issues like these, Social Security does provide specific guidelines for how to claim disability benefits (unlike sleep apnea).

    Those guidelines tell you what kinds of symptoms Social Security considers limiting enough to warrant disability benefits.

    And for these diseases, they’ll say what types of medical evidence you can use to prove your disability claim—like exam results, doctors’ reports, medical test results, prescribed medications, a history of mental health treatment and more.

    The Ohio Social Security Disability lawyers at Horenstein, Nicholson & Blumenthal know how to build a case for disability benefits when sleep apnea is disrupting your life.

    Start by talking to us, no charge, about what you’re going through and what options you have.

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    Getting Disability Benefits with Sleep Apnea by Measuring Your Functioning

    There’s another path to getting Social Security Disability benefits with sleep apnea that doesn’t require you to have a certain diagnosis, not even a diagnosis on Social Security’s official listing of impairments.

    You can show that the way you function every day is severely limited by the effects of your compromised health.

    Social Security will seek a measure of your physical and mental abilities called your residual functional capacity, or RFC.

    You get your RFC rating in cooperation with your health care providers. Your doctors will evaluate your functioning in several areas:

    • Ability to understand and use information
    • Ability to carry out instructions
    • Ability to respond properly to supervisors and co-workers
    • Capacity to handle the pressures that come with work
    • Physical endurance, including walking, lifting and sitting for extended times

    With any medical condition—sleep apnea or anything else—if the symptoms themselves make it impossible for you to work, you could have a successful Social Security Disability claim.

    You need the right evidence and legal arguments presented in the right way to Social Security.

    The Ohio disability attorneys at Horenstein, Nicholson & Blumenthal have helped people with all kinds of medical conditions, including illnesses like sleep apnea that are challenging to persuade Social Security to approve for benefits.

    Talk to us in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and anywhere in Ohio.

    If sleep apnea is wreaking havoc on your life, see if Social Security Disability could provide you some peace.

    Call HNB Now