In the morning, lay around conserving energy to my surprise (9)

I believe the answer is:

amazingly

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'my surprise' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'in the morning lay around conserving energy' is the wordplay.
'in the morning' becomes 'am' (AM on a clock).
'around' indicates anagramming the letters.
'conserving' indicates putting letters inside.
'energy' becomes 'zing' (I've seen this before).
'lay' is an anagram of 'aly'.
'aly' going around 'zing' is 'azingly'.
'am'+'azingly'='AMAZINGLY'

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for amazingly that I've seen is " Astoundingly".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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