Best ZMA Supplement

People are tired. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 13% of adults report feeling exhausted most days of the week, around 33% of American adults don’t get enough sleep, and up to 20% experience chronic sleep disorders.1 2

It’s a problem that has serious health consequences since fatigue can exacerbate chronic diseases, reduce cognitive function, and compromise your decision-making.3 These aren’t things that an extra cup of coffee can fix. The solution would be to sleep more, but getting to sleep can itself be an obstacle — and how do you overcome that?

The answer might be ZMA, a supplement that combines zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6. Offering the potential to improve sleep outcomes and boost energy levels more directly, ZMA is growing in popularity among people dreaming of better slumber and those striving to improve their physical performance. In this review, we examine how ZMA may lead to these disparate health goals and tell you which brands show the most promise for helping you achieve them. Along the way, we’ll share a very useful deviation from traditional ZMA supplements.

If you’re short on time, check out our summary of recommendations below. Then read through the rest of the guide for a detailed breakdown of how we chose our recommendations.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

Our research on ZMA focused on several facets. First, we looked at the active ingredients separately — zinc, magnesium, and B6 — to form a baseline understanding of what each one could do to improve sleep and energy. Then, we broadly surveyed the ZMA landscape to see which types of formulations had the best scientific support for their intended health outcomes. Finally, we explored the landscape more closely to identify the most promising ZMA supplements, purchase them, and try them ourselves. In the end, with regard to ZMA and related areas of research, our cumulative efforts have spanned more than 340 hours.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

We evaluated the market’s best ZMA supplements based on four criteria that are the most likely to influence consumer decisions:

• Effectiveness: Will the product deliver on its intended health outcomes?
• Safety: What health risks, if any, does the product pose?
• Cost: Is the product affordable in terms of up-front and per-capsule costs?
• Convenience: How easy is the product to consume? Or, if you don’t like it, can you return it?

Here’s what our research and testing bore out:

Effectiveness

Winner: Puori M3

All of our ZMA recommendations are effective in their own ways, but Puori M3 provides the best balance for most people for these reasons:

• Its 300mg dosage of total elemental magnesium matches the amount used in a 2014 clinical trial in which magnesium supplementation improved strength and physical performance in elderly women.48
• It uses magnesium taurate, which may have beneficial effects on hypertension and cardiovascular disease. 4 5
• Its 15mg of zinc, which is important for energy metabolism, is roughly in line with the daily amounts recommended by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)6
• It provides 300mg of added malic acid. Malic acid takes part in a biomechanical process that allows stored energy to become available for use in movements such as muscle contraction.12 13 Hence, it can be beneficial to individuals in physical activities, including strength training.

Of course, Puori’s malic acid content makes it a better choice for people looking for an energy boost than for anyone seeking sleep support. For the latter, we’d say Wholesome Story is the more efficacious option since its magnesium glycinate-based formulation ought to promote restfulness without the drawbacks of, say, melatonin or valerian root.

Safety

Winner: Puori M3

Puori is also our winner for safety for its combination of low-risk dosages and high-quality operational practices.

With Puori, you get 300mg of elemental magnesium, which is under the 350mg Upper Intake Level (UL) from supplemental sources as prescribed by the Food and Nutrition Board.7 Also, importantly, you get 11mg of vitamin B6, which is 1mg short of the upper limit set by the EFSA in 2023.8 While it’s true that the Food and Nutrition Board sets its UL at 100mg, the EFSA reports that consuming more than 12mg per day may increase the user’s risk for nerve damage.9 Better safe than sorry, and Puori’s B6 dosage plays it safe.

On the operational side, Puori M3 isn’t just third-party tested but also certified by the Clean Label Project against more than 200 contaminants. Testing results are available through the product page, too, so you can see for yourself that Puori prioritizes purity in its ingredients. It’s also vegan and free of common allergens.

Wholesome Story is a close second-place finisher here — it, too, is vegan, third-party tested, and Clean Label Project certified — but its 50mg of B6 is the highest on our list and more than four times the EFSA limit.

Cost

Winner: NOW Sports ZMA Veg Capsules

NOW Sports has both the lowest base price and the lowest per-capsule cost among all of our recommendations. A 90-capsule bottle costs just $23.99 and gives you 30-45 servings, which amounts to around $0.27 per capsule. There’s also a larger, 180-capsule option for $39.99, which equates to $0.22 per capsule.

Below is a cost-comparison chart showing how NOW Sports measures up against Puori, Wholesome Story, and Swolverine. We’ve included both per-serving and per-capsule prices since each recommendation allows flexibility for titration, and you may need less than the label-recommended serving.

Direct your attention to the third row because it deserves some closer analysis. The NOW Sports label recommends different serving sizes for men (three capsules) and women (two capsules). A more granular per-serving cost breakdown looks like this:

• 90-capsule bottle (men): $0.80
• 90-capsule bottle (women): $0.53
• 180-capsule bottle (men): $0.67
• 180-capsule bottle (women): $0.44

So you can see that the only level at which NOW Sports doesn’t have the price advantage is when you compare the 90-capsule cost for men to Puori or Wholesome Story on subscription.

Convenience

Winner: Wholesome Story Magnesium Glycinate + Vitamin B6 + Zinc Picolinate

Wholesome Story is our winner for convenience because of its label-recommended serving size, capsule size, and return policy.

The Wholesome Story label recommends just two capsules per serving, which is one better than Puori and three fewer than Swolverine. NOW Sports is the only other brand on our list with a two-capsule recommendation, but that’s only for women; men are advised to take three. At any rate, Wholesome Story’s capsules are also significantly smaller, measuring up to 25% less in length and width than the others. People who have trouble swallowing pills should have the least trouble with Wholesome Story.

As for the return policy, Wholesome Story gives you a 90-day window to return up to three bottles of used or unused supplements for a full refund, minus shipping. Puori, NOW Sports, and Swolverine have shorter 30-day policies that apply only to unused/unopened products.

ZMA stands for “zinc magnesium aspartate.” In the strictest sense, it refers to a trademarked supplement that contains both eponymous ingredients along with vitamin B6 (although B6 isn’t part of the initialism). Yet not all ZMA supplements are made by the trademark owner, nor do they all have those ingredients exactly. If you examine only the available supplements that contain zinc, magnesium aspartate, and vitamin B6, you'll miss out on some the better variations; the best combinations of these three ingredients deviate from tradition by replacing magnesium aspartate with another form of magnesium, such as magnesium malate or magnesium glycinate.

You might already know that magnesium must be paired with a stabilizing substance before it’s suitable for human consumption, and each substance can alter magnesium’s absorption in the body while imparting specific health benefits. For example:

The two other parts of the fundamental ZMA equation — zinc and B6 — appear in different forms as well.

For zinc, some of the most common ones are zinc picolinate, zinc mono-L-methionine, zinc aspartate, zinc oxide, and zinc citrate. Similar to magnesium, the stabilizing substance affects the absorptivity of the zinc as well as the amount of elemental zinc you get from it.14 (Of note, each of our ZMA recommendations lists its elemental magnesium and zinc content, so you won’t have to perform any math to determine how much you’re getting.)

As for B6, you might see the label read something like “pyridoxine HCL” or “pyridoxal-5-phosphate,” which have no significant differences in bioavailability or safety according to the EFSA.15 Together, though, they can support magnesium’s effects on sleep and energy, as deficiencies in either nutrient are linked to fatigue, anemic weakness, poor sleep quality, and sleep disturbances.16 17 18 19

Individually, zinc, magnesium, and B6 provide their own benefits through different biological mechanisms. Here’s the summary version for each:

The idea behind taking the three together, as ZMA, is that they work synergistically to increase the impact each ingredient could have individually. Scientific support for this synergy theory largely comes from a study funded by SNAC, the company that originally registered ZMA as a trademark.20

Later research has been less optimistic. For example, a 2004 study on its use among athletes concluded that ZMA “does not appear to enhance training adaptations in resistance-trained populations.”21

The thing is, the more skeptical research looked rather narrowly at ZMA with magnesium aspartate, which isn’t the best form for achieving ZMA’s main desired outcomes — better sleep and/or physical performance. If we consider the diverse effects that magnesium can have in its various forms, and we hold them up alongside the research on zinc and B6, we start to see that zinc, magnesium, and B6 within a general framework may have a cumulative effect on sleep or energy.

It’s like having three all-stars on the same team. Do they work well together? Maybe. Can you trust each one to put points on the board? Absolutely.

Plus, when they play on the same team, you only have to buy one ticket to see them perform together. That tends to cost less to the consumer in the long term.

ZMA supplements are generally safe for most people — including women who are pregnant or breastfeeding22 23 24 — since their individual active ingredients are essential for health and basic bodily functions.

However, the safety of a specific ZMA supplement depends on its formulation, individual ingredient doses, and the company’s manufacturing practices. A ZMA supplement that contains more than just zinc, magnesium, and B6 may pose a higher risk of adverse effects. Ditto for a supplement that hasn’t undergone third-party testing. Researching brands, carefully reading labels, and speaking with your doctor can help you minimize risk.

Even the most barebones ZMA supplements can cause problems if the dosages are too high. As an adult, you want to keep your intake within the following limits:

• Elemental magnesium: 350mg per day from supplemental sources, in addition to the recommended daily allowance7
• Elemental zinc: 40mg per day25
• B6: 100mg per day per the Food and Nutrition Board,9 though the EFSA recommends no more than 12mg per day from supplemental sources8

Moreover, magnesium is known to interact with certain medications, including but not limited to antibiotics, diuretics, and drugs for diabetes or high blood pressure. Combining ZMA with any of these can affect your body’s ability to absorb the medication, lower your magnesium levels, or cause side effects like dizziness, nausea, and fluid retention.26 So it’s important that you speak with your doctor before bringing ZMA into your supplement rotation.

Because ZMA supplements offer the potential for improved sleep quality and/or physical energy, they should provide the greatest benefit to people who:

• Have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting high-quality sleep
• Frequently wake in the middle of the night
• Experience insomnia
• Want to increase their athletic performance (e.g., endurance trainers and weight lifters)
• Want an all-in-one solution for a zinc, magnesium, and B6 deficiency

On the other hand, you’ll want to avoid ZMA if you fall into any of the following categories:

Best for physical endurance and energy

We’ve chosen Puori M3 as the best ZMA supplement for endurance and energy because of its 300mg of added malic acid. That’s important because malic acid plays a part in the Krebs cycle, the function of which is to convert stored energy (i.e., food) into a usable form of energy called ATP.12 You experience ATP in action when you contract a muscle or engage in endurance exercise, like running,13 27 so supplementing with malic acid is kind of like adding a drop of lighter fuel to a fire: theoretically, it can help intensify your energy production.

Malic acid’s role in ATP conversion also means it has potential as a treatment for fibromyalgia, a disorder characterized by general musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. A 1995 study illustrates this. Twenty-four patients with primary fibromyalgia received either a placebo or malic acid (along with 150-300mg of magnesium) and were evaluated in three pain/tenderness measures. By the study’s end, the researchers found that a 1,200mg daily dose of malic acid led to “significant reductions in the severity of all … measures.”28 The clinical dose there is a lot more than you get from Puori, but the study should give you a sense of how malic acid, in combination with magnesium, can affect your energy levels.

Speaking of magnesium, Puori M3 uses two forms. One is magnesium gluconate, a sort of general-use magnesium for treating low mag levels. The other is magnesium taurate ("taurinate" on the label), which has been shown in recent studies to attenuate the progression of hypertension in rats and may serve as a therapy for cardiovascular disease in humans.4 5

And as for zinc, Puori provides a sensible 15mg per serving. It’s a lower dose than you get from Wholesome Story, NOW Sports, or Swolverine, but it’s also roughly in line with the EFSA’s recommendations — 7.5-12.7mg/day for women, 9.4-6.3mg/day for men — and poses you the least risk of pushing you over the 40mg UL.6 25

Pricing, subscriptions, and shipping

Puori M3 is $34 as a one-time purchase, and shipping is free on orders of $30 or more. The per-capsule cost, then, is $0.28.

A subscription drops the price to $28.90, so it’s a sizable discount, but we do not recommend a subscription over a one-time purchase. That’s because a subscription pulls you under the free-shipping threshold, and the standard shipping cost is an eye-popping $19.99, or around 2-4 times as much as our other recommendations. The per-capsule cost then balloons to about $0.41.

Yes, a subscription ends up being around $14 more expensive than a one-time purchase. The convenience of recurring deliveries isn’t worth that much.

But if you choose to subscribe, know that you can adjust the delivery frequency in your account after checkout.

Refunds

Puori’s 30-day refund policy applies only to unused/unopened products. NOW Sports and Swolverine have similar policies. The outlier is Wholesome Story, which has a 90-day policy that applies to used products, acting as a true money-back guarantee.

Best long-term solution for sleep

Wholesome Story’s ingredient list for its Magnesium Glycinate + Vitamin B6+ Zinc Picolinate is as elegantly minimalistic as its label. Inside each two-capsule serving are:

• Magnesium glycinate (120mg elemental)
• Vitamin B6 (50mg)
• Zinc picolinate (30mg elemental)

Take note of the magnesium there, namely its form: glycinate. Magnesium glycinate is considered to be the best form of magnesium for sleep because (a) it’s well-absorbed and (b) glycine itself has its own impressive record in supporting sleep.36 11

The dosage is important, too, because it hits quite the sweet spot. A 2024 review found that most effective sleep doses ranged from around 50mg to 300mg of elemental magnesium.37 Wholesome Story gives you 120mg per two capsules, which is square enough in the mid-range that it should suit most users.

The main worry with Wholesome Story is its high vitamin B6 dosage. One serving gets you halfway to the UL and around four times over the EFSA-recommended limit. So, if you’re concerned about your risk for nerve damage, you should first speak with your doctor about an appropriate B6 dosage range for you and then consider a different supplement based on their advice.

Pricing, subscriptions, and shipping

Wholesome Story is $25.95 ($0.43 per capsule) as a one-time purchase. On a subscription, it’s $23.36 ($0.39 per capsule). The free shipping threshold is $40, so a single order of the ZMA won’t get you there. Lucky for you, the $5.50 flat-rate shipping fee isn’t just low but the lowest on our list.

Subscribers can choose to have their orders shipped every 1-4 months, and they can pause their shipments at any time.

Refunds

Wholesome Story is the only brand in this guide that has a money-back guarantee. You can try the ZMA, and if it doesn't work out, you can send it back within 90 days for a full refund minus return shipping. The guarantee is valid on up to three bottles of product, full or empty.

Best short-term solution for sleep

While Wholesome Story is our best overall sleep solution, Swolverine ZMT is our recommendation for people seeking more immediate outcomes. That’s because it contains a host of strong, well-supported ingredients for relieving stress and inducing sleep — melatonin, valerian root, L-theanine, ashwagandha38 39 40 41 — but some of those ingredients may not be suitable for long-term use.

We’re mainly talking about melatonin and valerian root. Current research strongly supports their abilities to promote sleep and improve sleep quality38 39 but often at the expense of next-day wakefulness. Either one can cause you to experience vivid, possibly disruptive dreams as you sleep, and you may feel drowsy or groggy the following morning.42 43

With that in mind, be judicious in your use of Swolverine ZMT and try not to become dependent on its ingredients for sound sleep. Instead, keep it at hand for when you really need a knockout for the night.

Pricing, subscriptions, and shipping

Swolverine ZMT costs $66.99 as a one-time purchase and $56.94 as a subscription. With 180 capsules per container, you’re looking at around $0.32-$0.37 per capsule. But the label-recommended serving size is six capsules. Also, domestic shipping costs around $8 for orders under $99, and you won’t cross the free shipping threshold with ZMT alone.

Subscribers can choose to receive deliveries every 30 or 60 days.

Refunds

Swolverine has a similar refund policy to Puori and NOW Sports — that is, no returns of opened/used products — except there are fees involved:

• $5 restocking fee
• 2.5% processing fee
• Taxes, if eligible

To illustrate, if you qualify for a refund on a one-time purchase, you’ll get back a maximum of around $60; and on a subscription order, around $50.

Best budget pick

NOW Sports ZMA is sold as a sports recovery supplement, so in the confines of this guide, it aligns more with Puori than with Wholesome Story or Swolverine. NOW is also the one “true” ZMA among our recommendations since it’s the only one that uses magnesium aspartate.

Concerning magnesium aspartate’s utility for sports recovery, the research is mixed. For example, in 2000, a study published in the Journal of Exercise Physiology concluded that a combination of mag aspartate, zinc, and B6 could yield desirable outcomes on “muscle attributes and selected hormones in strength-trained, competitive athletes.”20 On the other hand, a study published later in 2004 countered that this same combination “does not appear to enhance training adaptations in resistance-trained populations.”21 Here, it bears mentioning that the 2000 study was written in part by a researcher with an equity interest in SNAC, the company that originally trademarked ZMA.

However, we know that magnesium has positive implications for enhancing physical performance, and we can see from NOW’s label that it provides 300-450mg of elemental magnesium for every 2-3 capsules. The same serving sizes deliver 20-30mg of zinc, which is within the clinical range found to be effective for overcoming fatigue in a 2021 study among the elderly.16

The dosages are solid, even if the mag form isn’t the most scientifically supported for sleep or energy.

Pricing, subscriptions, and shipping

Then there’s the price:

• $23.99 for a 90-capsule bottle ($0.27 per capsule)
• $39.99 for a 180-capsule bottle ($0.22 per capsule)

The up-front and per-capsule costs are both the lowest on our list.

Unfortunately, there are no direct subscription savings, as there are no subscriptions through the NOW website. On the bright side, you can subscribe via Amazon or iHerb. We recommend the latter since iHerb allows you to try a lesser amount at a lower price and may allow for returns of used supplements within 30 days.

But if you do purchase directly from NOW, there’s at least a $50 free-shipping threshold; neither bottle size gets you there alone, but a double order will. Otherwise, standard shipping is low-cost. At a $6.95 flat rate, it’s a little more than Wholesome Story, less than Swolverine, and way less than Puori’s rate for subscribers.

Refunds

When you buy directly from NOW, you have 30 days to return an unopened/unused product for a full refund minus return shipping. It’s the same return window as Puori and Swolverine. But unlike Swolverine, NOW at least doesn’t have you cover the restocking or processing costs.

An obvious alternative to ZMA is to purchase zinc, magnesium, or B6 on its own or in some combination that will satisfy your health needs. Depending on which nutrient you need, you could save a pretty penny. Zinc and B-6 are usually pretty affordable as standalone supplements, and NOW Foods sells 100-capsule bottles for about $8 each.

Magnesium tends to run at higher price points, especially when it’s a proven form for sleep or energy (e.g., magnesium glycinate). Still, you can find high-quality magnesium at around the same cost as ZMA, such as Micro Ingredients Magnesium Glycinate (our overall pick for best magnesium sleep supplements).

However, if you’d prefer a more self-contained solution for sleep, energy, or related areas of health, you have a few good options to choose from: