diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index b81bc2519b..f33c0ecb95 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -97,6 +97,8 @@ jobs:
           [ $(git status --short --ignore-submodules|wc -l) -eq 0 ]
 
       - name: test
+        env:
+          DEBUG: "waku:nim-waku*,waku:test*"
         run: npm run test
 
       - name: Upload logs on failure
diff --git a/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts b/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts
index eb0303b2aa..cf3265dfb9 100644
--- a/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts
+++ b/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { expect } from 'chai';
+import debug from 'debug';
 import TCP from 'libp2p-tcp';
 
 import {
@@ -13,6 +14,8 @@ import { WakuMessage } from '../waku_message';
 
 import { RelayCodec, RelayDefaultTopic } from './index';
 
+const log = debug('waku:test');
+
 describe('Waku Relay', () => {
   afterEach(function () {
     if (this.currentTest?.state === 'failed') {
@@ -130,6 +133,8 @@ describe('Waku Relay', () => {
 
       beforeEach(async function () {
         this.timeout(30_000);
+
+        log('Create waku node');
         waku = await Waku.create({
           staticNoiseKey: NOISE_KEY_1,
           listenAddresses: ['/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/0'],
@@ -138,8 +143,10 @@ describe('Waku Relay', () => {
 
         const multiAddrWithId = waku.getLocalMultiaddrWithID();
         nimWaku = new NimWaku(makeLogFileName(this));
+        log('Starting nim-waku');
         await nimWaku.start({ staticnode: multiAddrWithId });
 
+        log('Waiting for heartbeat');
         await new Promise((resolve) =>
           waku.libp2p.pubsub.once('gossipsub:heartbeat', resolve)
         );
diff --git a/src/test_utils/nim_waku.ts b/src/test_utils/nim_waku.ts
index 3096463076..19b5725399 100644
--- a/src/test_utils/nim_waku.ts
+++ b/src/test_utils/nim_waku.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import * as proto from '../proto/waku/v2/message';
 import { existsAsync, mkdirAsync, openAsync } from './async_fs';
 import waitForLine from './log_file';
 
-const dbg = debug('nim-waku');
+const dbg = debug('waku:nim-waku');
 
 const NIM_WAKU_DEFAULT_P2P_PORT = 60000;
 const NIM_WAKU_DEFAULT_RPC_PORT = 8545;
@@ -114,7 +114,9 @@ export class NimWaku {
       );
     });
 
+    dbg("Waiting to see 'RPC Server started' in nim-waku logs");
     await this.waitForLog('RPC Server started');
+    dbg('nim-waku node has been started');
   }
 
   public stop(): void {