Procrastination or Incubation?

I was just listening to the CBC today which talked about the concept of procrastination versus incubation. A researcher has just published a study that promotes the incredible benefits of "incubation" -- in which we allow ourselves to stop working on something - we purposely divert our attention away from what we are trying to accomplish. We could email, listen to music, or do anything off topic. Apparently, we are much better prepared to tackle our work when we return.

I'm sure we've all heard of this concept or may use it ourselves, but it's even more important for us to foster "incubation" in our classroom environment. To what level should we embrace this idea? I think that allowing students to chatter amongst themselves may be a healthy form of incubation, if it is intermingled with their group discussion assignment. That's why having strict rules about talking or listening to music may not be a good idea.