I need a piece of JavaScript that delays a web page from being
rendered for 5 seconds. I'm a PhD student that is studying the effects
of download delay so I'm artificially trying to create it.

<script language="javascript">
function wait5()
{
d = new Date();
var c = null;
do { var c = new Date(); }
while(c-d < 5000);
}

wait5();
</script>

didn't try it out, though should work.

It works