Your Internet connection may have gone to sleep. I have the same experience and it seems like my network also needs to wake up, which takes 5-8 seconds.

Now the fact that you did not have this problem and now you do is little perplexing, but look to your Internet settings or other related applications.

On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.