diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f5b858349..aedfcab8b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -40,9 +40,14 @@ prep-stubs:
 docs-build: prep-docs
 	NAPARI_CONFIG="" NAPARI_APPLICATION_IPY_INTERACTIVE=0 sphinx-build -M html docs/ docs/_build  -WT --keep-going -D sphinx_gallery_conf.examples_dirs=$(GALLERY_PATH) $(SPHINXOPTS)
 
+# build docs with xvfb (headless X server)
 docs-xvfb: prep-docs
 	NAPARI_CONFIG="" NAPARI_APPLICATION_IPY_INTERACTIVE=0 xvfb-run --auto-servernum sphinx-build -M html docs/ docs/_build -D sphinx_gallery_conf.examples_dirs=$(GALLERY_PATH) $(SPHINXOPTS)
 
+# build docs with xwfb (headless X server with Wayland support)
+docs-xwfb: prep-docs
+	NAPARI_CONFIG="" NAPARI_APPLICATION_IPY_INTERACTIVE=0 xwfb-run -- sphinx-build -M html docs/ docs/_build -D sphinx_gallery_conf.examples_dirs=$(GALLERY_PATH) $(SPHINXOPTS)
+
 # full docs (re)build
 # cleans everything, starts from scratch
 html: clean clean-gallery docs-build
diff --git a/docs/developers/contributing/documentation/index.md b/docs/developers/contributing/documentation/index.md
index 94b4f7ca2..24893e828 100644
--- a/docs/developers/contributing/documentation/index.md
+++ b/docs/developers/contributing/documentation/index.md
@@ -452,17 +452,39 @@ Note: using `-j4` will parallelize the build over 4 cores and can result in cras
 
 ````
 
-````{tip}
-If you have [xvfb](https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/man/man1/Xvfb.1.xhtml)
-installed on your system, you can also run a "headless GUI" build by using the
-`docs-xvfb` command:
+````{admonition} Headless GUI builds
+:class: tip
 
-```bash
-make docs-xvfb
-```
+If you are running a full build, you can run it in a "headless GUI"
+mode, which will prevent napari windows from popping up during the build.
+
+1. If you are using X11 as your display server and you have
+   [xvfb](https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/man/man1/Xvfb.1.xhtml)
+   installed on your system, you can use the `docs-xvfb` command:
+
+   ```bash
+   make docs-xvfb
+   ```
+
+   This will prevent all but the first napari window from being shown during the docs
+   build.
+
+2. If you are using Wayland as your display server, and you have `xwfb-run` installed
+   on your system (part of the [xwayland-run utilities](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/ofourdan/xwayland-runcan),
+   you can use the `docs-xwfb` command:
+
+   ```bash
+   make docs-xwfb
+   ```
+
+   Note that you may have to install the `xwayland-run` package manually so that it
+   uses the correct Python environment you are using to build the docs. You can do that
+   by cloning the sources from [the xwayland-run GitLab repository](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/ofourdan/xwayland-run) and running:
 
-This will prevent all but the first napari window from being shown during the docs
-build.
+   ```bash
+   meson setup -Dcompositor=weston --prefix=/path/to/env/ -Dpython.install_env=prefix . build
+   meson install -C build
+   ```
 ````
 
 (building-what-you-need)=