diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 9c7fbe42c..52705c8c1 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ stages:
 build-mutter:
   stage: build
   script:
-    - meson . build -Degl_device=true -Dwayland_eglstream=true --werror
+    - meson . build -Dbuildtype=debugoptimized -Degl_device=true -Dwayland_eglstream=true --werror
     - ninja -C build
     - ninja -C build install