Sims 4 stops working 20 minutes into gameplay

I think I might have the same problem. I can play normal for between 10-20 minutes. Then the first that happens is that I can't change which SIM I'm using. I can change character, but their "screen" with needs etc is stuck on the first one. I cant ask any of the affected sims to do anything. They're "locked". 

Then maids get "locked in place" as well, and ranchers. I had to fire them for them to leave. At one point even my horses, dogs and cats were locked in place. They have idle animation as you say, you can see they breathe, but theyre locked in place.

I cant use the normal ctrl-shift-c command to open the cheat console, which is completely new to me, so I had to use ctrl-shift-windowsbutton-c to open it. 
I did the "debug" command to see if it helped. But it didnt, it just froze them in place instead. So instead of an idle animation, instead of them breathing, they completely freeze like a still picture, while the rest of the game, the background, the hours, keeps running like normal.

This happened after I did the last update. I dont know which update it was that caused it, as I havent played in a long time untill now. I concidered trying to reinstall the game to see if it helps. I have already tried the repair function, but it didnt work. 

Not sure if this is the same for you TS, but this is at least what happens to me. It sounded a bit like the same from the way you say they go idle.