rehydrating yeast???

Obviously I'm a noob and I plan on brewing my first extract batch tomorrow, American Wheat. I've been reading John Palmer's book "How to Brew" 3rd edition and he talks about rehydrating yeast in the book. He says this is a better techinque that will give you a better shot with the yeast than just sprinkling it on top of the wort and stirring it in. So I'm asking all of you out there, what do you think? I plan on following the directions for the most part besides this step, but I'm still gonna take a few things from his book and use them on my first brew. I've got my stuff sanitizing right now and I plan on letting it sit overnight just to be safe as he says having it sit longer than the 1 hour won't hurt anything.

I've read that people do the sprinkle method with good results. I, however, rehydrate per the instructions on the package of yeast. I've never had a problem and it is such a small step that I really don't mind having the yeast rehydrate while the wort is cooling after the boil.

I used to sprinkle on top and it does work, but I had some occasional problems with stuck fermentations which may or may not be attributable to this. More recently, when I don't use liquid yeast (I live overseas and am constantly worried about viability), I've used yeast nutrient and have rehydrated the dry yeast for about 10 mins in a sanitized measuring cup filled with 80 to 90 degree water that I previously boiled - haven't had any problems since.

Ive only pitched dry and havent had a problem,yet.I get activity within a day also.If you get that cheap yeast under those kit lids like for mr beer or whatever i would hydrate them to see if they were alive .otherwise if you get a quality yeast from a fridge at a homebrew store- its good to go. I wouldnt worry about hydrating, unless you dont oxygenate your wort before pitching first.But its not a bad idea even though i read that if you hydrate at 95 then throw it into 65 degree wort it can shock it.Then it seems kind of pointless to hydrate.

As far as the oxygenating of the beer, that's one of the tips I'm gonna use from his book. He says to pour the beer into the fermenter and then back into the boil kettle 3 or 4 times and that should do the job for oxgenating the wort. The yeast is Munton's, from what his book says that's one of the "better" yeasts?

I don't think Palmer has recommended aerating that way... Pouring from the fermenter and then back into the kettle is a bad idea because you'll pick up the break all over again and it increases the chance of infection in the process. I'd recommend straining the wort into your fermenting bucket or through a funnel for a carboy and then either stirring or shaking your fermenter or using an oxygenation pump.

You might review again:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter9-1.html