Sims keep pausing, but time continues to run

Ericab44  There may or may not be a way to fix this save, and it'll take some experimenting.  First, load the save, but a different, previously-unplayed household, in a different world, and see how it runs.

If the other household is fine, try your main household again, but on a different lot, a default EA creation rather than something from the Gallery.  You can also try them on the same lot but with their inventories empty (and the fridge empty too), and both together.

If your main household has this issue even on a default lot and with the sims' inventories empty, split the household and test each sim separately.  It's possible that only one is a problem.

The idea here is to try to isolate the cause of the issue.  You don't need to save your progress after any of this, or you can use "save as" and rename the save so you have a testing copy to work with while your original remains intact.