I think this might be one of those cases where English has distinct punctative vs durative in the past tense: The house burnt down last week, but it burned all night. I dreamt of it on Monday, but turned in my sleep while I dreamed. Where there are two past forms, the one that takes longer to say (-d rather than -t) tends to be used to indicate on-going activity, while the shorter is used for the action regarded as an event at a single time.

I hadn't thought of lit vs lighted in this way, but although I normally say 'lit', when I try to make a sentence using 'lighted' it seems to be durative: Jackie's arrival lit up the room, but her presence lighted up the room. A light switch lit it up, a lamp lighted it up.