The screen was suddenly unresponsive, there had been no physical trauma done to the phone so I'm thinking it's a software issue.
Sources tell me to reset my phone by holding the power button and the home button at the same time but unfortunately, my home button has been broken for years and I have been using assistive touch since then. Out of desperation I tried draining the battery and then recharging it by getting it to the 'slide to power off' thing and just leaving it. That didn't work.