In a method for changing the lift of inlet valves of an internal combustion engine between a partial lift and a full lift, the lift of the inlet valves being controlled by at least one camshaft, which comprises partial lift cams and full lift cams acting alternatively on the inlet valves, the control times of an inlet valves assigned to the camshaft are adjusted by rotating the camshaft by a certain angle so that the changeover between the partial lift cams and the full lift cams can be carried out at points within a characteristic performance graph of the internal combustion engine at which the suction capacity of the internal combustion engine when using the partial lift cams corresponds essentially to the suction capacity of the internal combustion engine when using the full lift cams.