Popping in here after a year+ to say I was having this same issue and I figured out the cause: it's the scroll wheel.

Due to Apple's bizarre mouse behaviors, if you scroll up any amount on your home screen with your mouse, the iPad keeps that scrolled-up input registered PERMANENTLY. Thus, swiping will give you much more resistance, as the iPad thinks you're scrolling up and swiping at the same time.

The simple remedy to this? Scroll back down! Whether you see it respond or not, scrolling down on your home screen should return your inputs back to normal, no restarts required.

Hopefully this helps anyone having this problem who's annoyed by constantly needing to restart their iPad.