Will I hurt my career by taking a 6 month sabbatical?

I've been working at a job that I kind of fell into out of college for just under four years now. It was enjoyable at first, but the company now feels like a dead-end and the culture feels toxic. I've been trying for the last several months to take my jack-of-all-trades experience at this job and get an entry level position at a tech company. Unfortunately, this has also coincided with a bunch of personal life stuff (including a recent and really shocking death in my family). It's gotten to the point where my job is making me miserable and, mixed in with the stress of a (so far) unsuccessful job search and everything else, I'm having trouble just getting out of bed in the mornings. I've largely switched to work from home, because going into the office has become somewhat unbearable. My state of my mind has also affected my efforts at job searching. I'm looking for the kind of position that requires a network and connections to get, but with everything going on it's pretty difficult to summon the energy to do that much. Basically, I'm depressed as fuck. And I'm at the point where I couldn't care less where I work as long as it's somewhere else. I even gave serious consideration to a job where the employer raised the most red flags I have ever seen. And I kind of regret passing on that opportunity.

I live with my partner (we're married) and am in the very fortunate situation where he can support both of us comfortably. He has suggested that I just take a six month (or some kind of fixed period of time) sabbatical and call it a period of self-study, career-enhancement, or writing on a resume (I do creative writing as an on-and-off hobby). He thinks I should use the time to recharge and get my bearings about what I want to do. The idea is very tempting, but my fear is that I'm going to hurt my chances of finding a job even more, especially given that I'll then be looking for a job without already having one.

So, on to my actual question: is it better to stay at a job that's making you miserable and put in a less than perfect effort at job searching in the hopes that eventually you'll land somewhere? Or am I better off taking time for myself, recharging, and coming back to it later with a gap on my resume but a stronger effort at the job search?