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CAN YOU GET DISABILITY BENEFITS FOR INSOMNIA OR SLEEP DISORDERS?

Some of my clients who file for Social Security disability benefits have severe sleep problems.  One client recently told me that she sleeps only about 3 hours per night.  Her medical record indicates obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia and other unspecified sleep disorders.

In most cases, a severe sleep disorder results in symptoms such as
  • Fatigue
  • Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
  • Lack of Concentration
  • Memory problems
  • Irritability
When developing a disability case where there are chronic and significant sleep disorders, I try to emphasize the fatigue and mental restrictions that come with not sleeping.

Social Security uses vocational experts to guide them on work requirements--in areas like lack of concentration, persistence, pace, being off task, getting along with co-workers or supervisors, etc.  Normally, a vocational expert will testify that full-time work in today's economy means being on task around 90 percent of the time (which means being awake and alert).  If fatigue or lack of concentration keeps an individual persistently off task more than about 10 percent of an 8-hour work-day, this usually will preclude the ability to work.

So, your attorney or non-attorney representative should carefully question Social Security's vocational expert about the restrictive effects of poor sleep.  However, this will not be effective unless the medical records document the presence of a severe sleep disorder and documents that the claimant is having problems as a result of the sleep disorder.

Disability for Sleep Disorders: Contact Us Now 

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