Of course, now that I’m older, it’s not that easy for me to fly to any timezone outside glorious Central Standard Time, and I have jet lag to thank for that. (We’ve known for a long time that jet lag gets worse as you get older. But, I have a solution for myself, and for anyone else struggling with the effects of jet lag: Only fly heading west. Jet lag is always worse when you’re flying east, thanks to our own biology. “Jet lag is an actual circadian rhythm misalignment,” Matsumura says.