Oh, geez. That's strange. You don't pause it, and you don't use the sleep trick.
BTW the sleep trick is when you set the time so it sleeps and it won't bother you.
Okay, so there is no such thing as missing the mail. The mail icon keeps blinking until you check it (I believe). Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Or maybe you could've checked the mail, but then pressed the C button to cancel it? It could also be a glitch.