Let me ask the question: what do you want?

next, if 1 .. 3; will only call next when the left condition is true until the right condition is true.

Written differently:

while (<>) {
  next, if 2 .. 5;
  print;
}
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Is sort of the same as:

my $index = 0;
my $skip = 0;
while (<>) {
  $index++;
  if ($skip or $index == 2) {
    if ($index == 5) {
      $skip = 0;
    }
    next;
  }
  print;
}
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If your code is looping over a sequence of numbers or if you are using another counter then you might be able to use: next if $_ == 2 .. $_ == 5;