Disability for Sleep Apnea

Is it possible to receive disability benefits for Sleep Apnea patients?

I'm 23 years old and I was just recenetly diagnosed with a very severe form of sleep apnea. My doctors were so surprised I went almost 2 years having these severe symptoms. I didn't know at first back in 2007 that my constant tiredness and snoring were symptoms of a sleep disorder. In 2008, I was working at a security company and I used to work irregular hours a lot and sometimes I would force myself to go a couple of days at a time without sleep. I actually got a few write ups and finally terminaion from that company because a few times I had nodded off for a brief moment and got caught doing it. I still didn't know I had a sleep disorder. In August of 2008, I tried going to school on line and I just couldn't stay awake long enough to listen to the lectures and complete my assignments becuase within a few minutes I was out like a light bulb. I started to think it was some kind of narcolepsy. When I began working for another security company, this job had steady hours and didn't involve hardly any real security work, more like that of a desk clerk. I began noticing that some days even if I got 7-8 hours of sleep that I would still get those sleep spells. It was strange because I would get up out of my chair and walk around my desk to keep active and sometimes I would fall asleep while I was walking. I would feel my knees collapse underneath me and I would wake up because of the falling sensation, or I would even be talking to someone and fall asleep right in front of them. I even fell asleep trying to look someone up on the computer while the person was standing in front of me, it was so embarrassing. I knew for sure this time that it must be some king of sleeping disorder. I spoke with my employer about this in April of 2008 and I explained to him that I was researching a Sleep institute here in San Antonio and that it would take about 2 months until my first appointment. I saw my regular care physician and he told me that my sleep disorder was severe but I would have to have a sleep study in order to know for sure what type of sleep abnea it was and how severe. By this time I was already getting swollen ankles and legs, dark spots all over my lower legs and feet, high blood pressure, and I was waking up 5-12 times in the middle of the night. I would even fall asleep while eating. 6 months after speaking with a Pulmologist, I had a sleep study done, and it was then determined within the first 10 minutes of my sleep that my sleep apnea was bad, so bad in fact that I was getting less that 30% oxygen to my brain as I slept.