Ceiling Toogle bolt for Tracklights

Hello. I Just moved to America and i'm slowly trying to figure out how things work here in terms of construction and wiring. I'm trying to instal track lights on the ceiling, after figuring out the electric wiring part cause I also have a ceiling fan and a switch for each, came the drilling part.

So I did my measurements and when I drilled a hole I felt the drill drop, but there isn't any clearance above the dry wall, it's not a stud (for what it's worth I tried scanning the whole ceiling in different areas and always came up with erratic and inconsistent findings, on my normal walls it works fine and consistent but not the ceiling, anyhow whatever is up there is about 3mm above my ceiling wall and it's compressible but won't allow the whole length of the screw to go in.

Any light as to what is going on?

For what it's worth, it's a semi old apartment building in Boston.

Thanks!

 

What are you seeing when your up in the attic?
If your seeing wooden strips with what looks like cement oozing between the slats then it's a plaster ceiling.
If it was mine I would add a 2 X 6 as a backer in the attic so I had something solid to screw to and also spread out the load.