The present invention relates to an adaptive driver for driving a gas discharge lamp and a method for operating a gas discharge lamp driven by an adaptive driver, especially a capacitive gas discharge lamp and more especially a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) lamp in a permanent optimized mode comprising the steps: measuring, sensing, and/or detecting a signal representing the key values of the output of the driver (current, power, voltage, frequency), calculating at least one actual reference value for the quality of the discharge of said lamp, comparing said actual reference value to at least one predefined value for an optimized operation mode of said lamp, and adjusting a power supply according to the result of said comparing.