So bear with me as this may be kind of long, but I was able to fix this issue in my game without disabling any packs (and I have Growing Together, Laundry Day and Eco Lifestyle). I do NOT have Horse Ranch. I play on PC and I also have mods and CC. I'm going to share my info in case it can help anyone else - or EA.
So I have been playing for awhile in Henford-on-Bagley and I just finished playing a household/lot for a full sim year. That household/lot included a toddler and an infant, laundry day hampers, washer and dryer, and some Eco items. Everything in that household on that lot worked fine - I had no issues. So yesterday I rotated into another household of mine in Henford-on-Bagley that I hadn't played in a while. This household is just a young adult married couple with no kids, but similar to the first lot in that both had chickens, a cow, lots of plants, laundry day hampers, washer and dryer, as well as a few Eco items. So I initially played for a while in Build Mode updating the house - making it bigger to fit more plants (including the Eco vertical garden) as well as a flower arranging bench and a woodworking bench. I then played the Sim day out and everything was working fine. I saved and closed my game right after my Sims went to bed at 12:45 am (Sim time).
When I went back in to play that household/lot today, I started having significant issues with the sims just being completely frozen. I would queue things up for them to do but they would just stand there. Resetting them did nothing. Time in the game was passing but they were just completely stuck. The game was completely unplayable. So I exited the game without saving, went back in and tried again. My sims were already queued to sleep so they just hopped back in bed and went to sleep. That's when I noticed that at just about 3:10/3:15 am (Sim time), the Ultra-Speed, which had been going because the Sims were sleeping, suddenly slowed way down. The third number was blurry as if it was still going really fast, but it wasn't really going any faster than Fast Speed. It wouldn't speed back up on its own and me clicking on it didn't make it go any faster either. So I again exited the game without saving and then went back in so that it was 12:45 am again. (My own personal "Groundhog Day".) So instead of letting the Sims hop right into bed and go to sleep I started queuing them up to do things. And they did. Everything was working fine. They completed any task I gave them. So then I had them get back in bed by 2:30 am and go to sleep. Sure enough, at 3:10/3:15 am, the Ultra-Speed slowed down and wouldn't resume. When the sims would get out of bed anytime after that 3 am slow down, they no longer functioned. I tested this numerous times and the same thing happened again and again.
So I again exited without saving. I went back into the game but this time loaded the household I had been playing previously. Sent them to bed at 12:45 am and watched. Everything went fine - the Ultra-Speed started when they went to sleep and whizzed right past 3 am with no issues - never slowed down. My sims slept through the night and were perfectly functional the next day. So, it became clear to me that, at least in my game, there was something going on with the other lot. I could only assume the game runs some behind the scene processes around 3 am Sim Time and something on that lot was clearly glitching.
So I went back to the problem lot, going in and out of the save file numerous times, removing various items each time, having my Sims go to sleep and then watching to see what happened at 3 am. It kept glitching at 3 am and then my Sims wouldn't function after that. At one point, I completely removed ALL Laundry Day items, ALL Eco items, the flower arranging bench, the woodworking bench, and I deleted EVERY plant on the lot to see if any of those items were causing the problem. It still glitched at 3 am. I exited without saving so all the items I had deleted were there the next time I went in.
AND THEN THIS IS WHERE IT GOT FIXED: So the next time I went in (it was still 12:45 am), I immediately paused the game and started going all around the lot re-setting numerous items. I reset my Sim's bed, all the Laundry Day hampers and washer/dryer, every single plant on the lot, and the Eco vertical garden. I reset the cow's barn and both chicken coops. Then I realized that the lot I'm on includes the common area of Henford-on-Bagley. So I reset the ice skating rink, the plants and plots in the common area, both stalls where you buy grocery and garden items, and I reset the information sign by the food stalls. The final thing I did was I replaced the mailbox on my lot. Went into Build Mode, sold the one I had and put a new one in. (This has helped me fix another bug in the past so I thought I'd give it a shot.) Then I let my sims go to sleep and held my breathe. Ultra-speed started and slowed down briefly around 3 am, but then picked right back up and whizzed through the rest of the night. My sims have worked perfectly since. No freezing, no lag, they do everything I queue up and autonomously queue stuff up themselves. I just finished playing 2 full sim days (I wanted to test a couple more 3 ams) and everything is running perfectly. So either my mailbox was glitching and replacing it fixed the issue - or one (or more) of the items I mentioned above was glitching and was fixed by the reset.
Anyway, I hope that helps someone. Try replacing the mailbox on your lot, and also go through the lot and reset any items with functions or interactions that might be affected by the behind the scenes game processes. Good luck!
