Getting Disability Benefits for Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea (APP-nee-uh) is a common, potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. People with sleep apnea typically stop breathing for 10 to 30 seconds at a time while they're sleeping. These short pauses can happen up to 400 times every night, interfering with your restfulness and causing symptoms even after awakening.

If you have sleep apnea, chances are you rarely have a good night's sleep. You likely struggle with hypersomnia (excessive daytime sleepiness), feeling fatigued and tired throughout the day. When these symptoms interfere with your ability to work, you may qualify for Social Security benefits or—if you're a veteran—VA disability compensation.

Is Sleep Apnea a Disability?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) awards disability benefits to people who have a medically determinable impairment that keeps them from working full-time for at least one year. Because sleep apnea can often be successfully managed with positive airway pressure devices (such as a CPAP, APAP, or BiPAP) that help you breathe at night, the agency isn't likely to find the disorder to be disabling on its own. However, when combined with another condition, your mental and physical symptoms from sleep apnea can add up to a finding of disability.

Symptoms From Sleep Apnea

Most people are aware of the deleterious effects of not getting enough restful sleep. These effects can be exacerbated when you have an ongoing disorder such as sleep apnea. Chronic sleep disruptions can affect daytime alertness, intellectual sharpness, memory, and mood—which may make it difficult to perform basic job tasks, deal with coworkers, or maintain regular attendance.

Types of Sleep Apnea

Nine out of ten people with apnea are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, which occurs when the trachea (windpipe) is blocked by relaxed throat muscles, tonsils, uvula, or fatty tissue in the throat. Central sleep apnea is a much rarer central nervous system disorder, and occurs when the brain isn't sending signals (or sends interrupted signals) to the muscles used for breathing.

Many people with sleep apnea also have other medical conditions or complications that limit the types of jobs they can do. For example, sleep apnea increases the risk of many cardiovascular (heart- and blood-related) disorders, such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke, and coronary artery disease. If you have one of these complications from sleep apnea, the SSA is more likely to find that you qualify for disability benefits.

How Can You Get Social Security Disability Benefits for Sleep Apnea?

The SSA can award disability benefits in one of two ways—by finding that you meet or equal the requirements of a listed impairment ("medically disabled") or by determining that no jobs exist that you can do despite your health conditions ("vocationally disabled"). If you have complications from sleep apnea or other severe impairments, you're more likely to get benefits.

Sleep apnea isn't one of the listed impairments that can automatically qualify you for disability. But the SSA does have listings for the following complications that may result from or are comorbid (occur at the same time) with sleep apnea:

• Listing 3.09 for pulmonary hypertension
• Listing 4.02 for chronic heart failure, and
• Listing 12.02 for neurocognitive disorders.

Even if your medical record doesn't contain the evidence required to meet one of the above listings, Social Security can still find you disabled you can't do your past work or any other jobs given your current residual functional capacity, or "RFC." Your RFC is an assessment of the most you're capable of doing, mentally and physically, in a work environment.

Social Security uses the restrictions in your RFC to determine what kind of work you can still do. For example, if you suffer from fatigue that causes you to lose concentration easily, your RFC might restrict you from jobs that involve driving or operating dangerous equipment. Or, if you have chronic heart failure caused by pulmonary hypertension, your RFC could limit you from doing work requiring lifting more than 10 pounds.

Social Security compares the restrictions in your current RFC with the physical and mental requirements of your past jobs to see if you can still do them. If not, the agency looks for other work that you're able to do given your functional limitations. Unless you're older than 50 and haven't finished high school, the SSA is likely to say that there are sit-down jobs you could do.

But if the SSA determines that your RFC has so many restrictions that you couldn't do even the easiest, least stressful jobs—for instance, your fatigue causes you to fall asleep on the job, make frequent mistakes, or misunderstand simple instructions—the agency will agree that you can't work and will find that you're disabled.

VA Disability Rating for Sleep Apnea

Veterans who have sleep apnea that was caused by or got worse as a result of their time in service may qualify for a disability percentage rating from the VA. Sleep apnea is evaluated using diagnostic code 6847 in the Schedule for Rating Disabilities (38 CFR Part 4). Veterans with symptomatic sleep apnea can get a disability rating of 30%, 50%, or 100%, depending on how severe their symptoms are, as demonstrated in the below table.

Veterans who have documented sleep-disordered breathing but who are asymptomatic—meaning they don't experience fatigue or daytime drowsiness—won't get a compensable (payable) disability rating from the VA, but can still qualify for other benefits such as access to the VA health care system.

Disability Benefit Amounts for Sleep Apnea

Social Security doesn't award disability benefits based on your medical diagnosis or the types of limitations that keep you from working. Instead, the exact amount you'll be paid every month depends on whether you're eligible for one of the two types of disability programs offered by the agency—Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Whether you're eligible for SSDI, SSI, or both depends on several factors including your employment history, income level, and current resource amount. SSDI benefits are provided to people who've earned enough in work credits to become insured under the program. SSI is a needs-based benefit offered to people who have limited income and assets regardless of their work history.

If you qualify for SSDI, your monthly benefit rate will be calculated based on your average lifetime earnings before you became disabled. For 2025, the maximum amount you can receive in SSDI is $4,018 per month, but the average amount is much less, at $1,580. SSI benefits are $967 per month in 2025, minus any countable income you have for that month. Many states provide a modest SSI supplemental benefit amount, depending on your living situation.

VA compensation amounts are determined by a combination of your disability percentage rating and your living situation. For example, if you have a 60% disability rating and are unmarried without dependent children, you can receive $1,395.93 every month (in 2025). But if you have a spouse and one child, you can receive $1,617.93 every month with the same 60% rating.

Applying for SSDI, SSI, or VA Disability Benefits

Filing for Social Security disability benefits is a fairly straightforward process. Most claimants choose to apply online at Social Security's official website. If you're filing for SSDI, you can complete the entire application online. SSI claimants who are over 18, have never been married, and have never applied for SSI before—whether for themselves or for a child—can also submit the full application online.

You can also apply for disability benefits by calling 800-772-1213 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday to speak with a representative. If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you can call the TTY number at 800-325-0778. Or, you can go in person at your local Social Security field office. Some offices require that you make an appointment first, so it's best to call ahead and ask.

Applications for VA disability compensation follow a similar procedure. You'll need to complete Form 21-526EZ, Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits, which you can do online using the electronic version of the form. You can also print out the form and fax it to 844-531-7818 (248-524-4260 from outside the U.S.), bring it to your local VA office, or mail it to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Claims Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444.

Veterans can receive both VA and Social Security benefits, although it's important to keep in mind that the two agencies have different disability criteria. Even veterans with a 100% disability rating from the VA aren't guaranteed to get SSDI or SSI, although in practice they'll likely have a strong case for Social Security benefits due to the medical records required to get a 100% VA rating.

How Hard Is It to Get Disability for Sleep Apnea?

Most people who have mild or moderate sleep apnea without other disorders will have a hard time qualifying for Social Security disability, especially if they're younger than 50. That's because it's difficult to show that symptoms of sleep apnea are severe enough to rule out all jobs, even those that aren't physically demanding or require focused attention to detail.

With that said, there's no one-size-fits-all answer to this question because it mainly depends on the strength of the medical records in a disability claim, which varies significantly from person to person. If you're thinking about applying for SSDI, SSI, or VA benefits but you're not sure whether you have the medical evidence needed to win your claim—or you've already been denied and want to appeal—consider contacting an experienced disability attorney for help.